We studied the cases of thirty-two skeletally mature patients, fifty
years old or less, who had a fracture of the femoral neck. In all patients
with a stage-1 or 2 fracture, the fracture healed without osteonecrosis.
Among the stage-3 and 4 fractures, the rate of non-union was 5.5 per cent
and that of osteonecrosis, 33 per cent (3 and 18.8 per cent, respectively,
for the whole group). Three patients with osteonecrosis required revision
to arthroplasty at six, sixty-eight, and ninety-nine months. Three others
had good function of the hip at forty-eight, ninety-six, and 129 months
despite the development of osteonecrosis. Treatment of these fractures
yielded very good results over-all, and even the occurrence of
osteonecrosis did not necessarily cause an unsatisfactory result.