• OBJECTIVE
    • To assess whether the fixation method and vitamin D supplementation affect the risk of patient-important outcomes within 12 months of injury in nongeriatric femoral neck fracture patients.
  • DESIGN
    • A pilot factorial randomized controlled trial.
  • SETTING
    • Fifteen North American clinical sites.
  • PARTICIPANTS
    • Ninety-one adults 18-60 years of age with a femoral neck fracture requiring surgical fixation.
  • INTERVENTION
    • Participants were randomized to a surgical intervention (sliding hip screw or cancellous screws) and a vitamin D intervention (vitamin D3 4000 IU daily vs. placebo for 6 months).
  • MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS
    • The primary clinical outcome was a composite of patient-important complications (reoperation, femoral head osteonecrosis, severe femoral neck malunion, and nonunion). Secondary outcomes included fracture-healing complications and radiographic fracture healing.
  • RESULTS
    • Eighty-six participants with a mean age of 41 years were included. We found no statistically significant difference in the risk of patient-important outcomes between the surgical treatment arms (hazard ratio 0.90, 95% confidence interval 0.40-2.02, P = 0.80) and vitamin D supplementation treatment arms (hazard ratio 0.96, 95% confidence interval 0.42-2.18, P = 0.92).
  • CONCLUSIONS
    • These pilot trial results continue to describe the results of current fixation implants, inform the challenges of improving outcomes in this fracture population, and may guide future vitamin D trials to improve healing outcomes in young fracture populations. Although the pilot trial was not adequately powered to detect treatment effects, publishing these results may facilitate future meta-analyses on this topic.
  • LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
    • Therapeutic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.