Bilateral Fatigue Fractures of the Femoral Neck

ABSTRACT

Stress fractures occur as a result of repetitive loading, which can lead to mechanical failure and fracture of the bone. They occur most commonly in the tibia and are progressively less common in the tarsals, metatarsals, femur, fibula, pelvis, sesamoids, and spine. Femoral neck stress fractures are unusual but not rare. Most cases of them occur in the elderly, in athletic individuals, or in military trainees. But, they often not initially considered when assessing hip pain. Patients often stoically persevere with mobilization, increasing the risk of fracture displacement with its associated morbidity of delayed union, non-union, and avascular necrosis. Radiographic evaluation may be unremarkable, especially if obtained within 1 week of the onset of symptoms. The diagnosis is often missed initially because of that reasons. Bilateral fatigue fractures of the femoral neck with no known medical conditions are very rare. We present the rare case of an apparently healthy military male recruit with bilateral femoral neck fatigue fractures diagnosed by using MRI.