Floating hip injury managed in a single stage with good outcome

ABSTRACT Introduction: The term floating hip is used to denote a fracture pattern involving fracture of pelvis or acetabulum and ipsilateral femur. These injuries are seen as a result of high velocity trauma. Objective: Our objective was to highlight the usefulness of single stage surgery using a common incision, the order of fracture fixation, in lateral decubitus position for type B floating hip injuries. Case report: A 58-year-old male, was brought presented to our emergency department with pain, swelling, deformity of right lower limb following a road traffic accident. On primary examination, patient was in hypovolemic shock. Imaging revealed the right posterior column and posterior wall of acetabulum with ipsilateral diaphyseal femur fracture. After stabilizing the patient, we operated on him in a single stage in lateral decubitus position, in which we fixed the femur first followed by acetabulum. Conclusion: Single stage fixation in lateral decubitus position after adequate resuscitation and evaluation can offer a good outcome by reducing the operative time and post- operative complications.