Hip fracture presenting as mechanical low back pain subsequent to a fall: a case study

This case chronicles the assessment and clinical management of a 54 year old female patient who presented with post traumatic lower back, hip and lower extremity pain, initially attributed to mechanical low back pain but ultimately diagnosed as a hip fracture. This case study illustrates a number of important issues germane to chiropractic care. These are; the importance of using different assessment procedures, combined with clinical experience, in order to differentiate between those patients with clinical conditions that are amenable to conservative care from those that are not; the usefulness of a tuning fork test as a clinical tool in differentiating between hip fracture and mechanical spinal pain syndromes and; the impact of falls and fractures among older Canadian patients.