While lower-energy fractures can often be managed with conservative (nonsurgical) care, treatment for high-energy pelvic fractures usually involves surgery to reconstruct the pelvis and restore stability so that patients can resume their daily activities.
If you have a pelvis fracture that is treated without surgery, you may be able to walk with crutches or a walker right away. If you have a have a more severe pelvis injury that requires surgery, you may be asked to not put weight on one or both legs.
Physical therapy, the use of crutches and, rarely, surgery may be recommended. Healing can take eight to 12 weeks. Severe injuries to the pelvis that involve several breaks can be life-threatening. Shock, extensive internal bleeding and internal organs damage may be involved.
In external fixation, surgeons insert metal pins into the bones on each side of the hip or pelvic fracture, then connect those pins to a frame that extends outside the body. This frame joins together any displaced pieces of bone and keeps the bones stable.
Your doctor may have put metal screws, pins, or a rod in your pelvis to fix the break. In some cases, surgery is not needed. While your pelvis heals, you will need to keep weight off the hips. Once you are able to walk, a walker or crutches can help you get around.
A combination of large and small incisions are used to fix these injuries. Surgery usually takes 1 to 3 hours. Most patients stay in the hospital for several days after surgery.
If pelvic fractures are severe and unstable, people have extreme pain and cannot walk. However, some minor fractures are much less painful. If other structures are injured, people may have other symptoms.
Those who experience pelvic fractures often face problems later on in life, which are not only painful and inconvenient, but costly to manage and treat. The following are possible long-term or permanent complications of a pelvic fracture: Limping. Patients often limp for several months following their fractures.
Arthritis. The biggest long term complication of a broken pelvis is the development of arthritis. The main reason doctors operate on these fractures is that they know from past experience that if they leave the fractures in a poor position, although they will often heal, arthritis may follow within five years.
You can sleep in which ever position you find most comfortable but may prefer to place a pillow in between your knees when sleeping on your side. Avoid sitting on low chairs or for prolonged periods of time. Use your hands on the arms of the chair to help gently lower yourself.
Compared with younger adults with pelvic fractures, older adults with this injury are at increased risk of long-term physical impairment and mortality. People may find that their quality of life decreases after a pelvic fracture. This is particularly true when other bone injuries develop due to pelvic fracture.
If you have suffered a fracture of your femur, tibia, or pelvis and it has resulted in ongoing problems, you may be eligible for Social Security Disability benefits. If you have been in a serious accident, you may have suffered multiple broken bones.
Activity Modification. After a hip or pelvic fracture, your doctor may advise you not to put any weight on the affected hip for six weeks or more. This allows the bone to heal.
Your doctor will provide specific guidance on when it's safe to start sitting after a fractured pelvis. In most cases, it's important to avoid sitting for long periods of time during the initial healing phase, which can last several weeks.
A hip fracture is a break in the upper thigh bone (femur) that forms the hip joint. A pelvic fracture can happen anywhere in the pelvic bone.
Hemorrhage is considered the leading cause of death in patients with pelvic ring injuries [5, 19, 20]. Lustenberger et al.
APC Type III: APC III injuries are defined as the disruption of both the anterior and posterior sacroiliac ligaments, including the posterior sacroiliac complex, the strongest ligaments in the body. APC III injuries have the highest rate of mortality, blood loss, and need for transfusion of all pelvic ring injuries[9]
About 9% of trauma patients present with severe pelvic fractures, which are tied to mortality rates as high as 32%.
Your pelvis is home to many nerves that can become damaged during a fracture. These nerves may never recover, and you can experience pain many years down the road.
Most pelvic fractures are caused by some type of traumatic, high-energy event, such as a car collision. Because the pelvic bones are near major blood vessels and organs, pelvic fractures may cause extensive bleeding and other injuries that require urgent treatment.
If you break your pelvis, it can be painful and hard to move, but a broken pelvis isn't nearly as dangerous or as common as a hip fracture. The pelvis is the ring of bones that sits below your belly button and above your legs.
In severe pelvic fractures (Abbreviated Injury Scale [AIS]4), the incidence of associated intraabdominal injuries was 30.7%, and the most commonly injured organs were the bladder and urethra (14.6%).
Broken bones can sometimes lead to secondary medical conditions. While it may be rare, it is possible for someone to have the broken bone itself heal but still have the fracture produce a permanent, disabling injury. In some cases, a fracture can cause damage to the nerves nearby.