[Femoral head necrosis after femoral neck fracture-A lifelong burden].

Posttraumatic femoral head necrosis after a femoral neck fracture in children and adolescents is a rare but severe complication. If this occurs in older patients a total hip arthroplasty (THA) is mostly indicated. In children and adolescents the primary goal of treatment is preservation of the hip joint. There is no standard treatment or generally applicable treatment recommendation. Various measures for treating this rare entity are discussed in the literature. In addition to conservative measures, retrograde drilling with or without cancellous bone grafting, joint distraction or grafting measures are available. As a final solution, however, a THA is also a suitable treatment option as soon as the anatomical conditions are appropriate.