[Painless femoral neck fracture in a patient with multiple sclerosis]

We describe a patient with multiple sclerosis who suffered a painless hip fracture. She was admitted to the hospital three weeks after falling on her left hip. She had been unable to walk after the trauma, but had had no pain. The condition was initially misinterpreted as multiple sclerosis schub. X-ray examination showed fracture of the left femoral neck, and by the time she was admitted to hospital the patient was paretic. She has improved substantially after an operation involving cementless total hip arthroplasty. Painless fractures in patients with multiple sclerosis may be confused with exacerbations of their neurological disease.