Patient Education | Hip Protectors

In addition to fragile bones, older people, especially those in their 80's and 90's, gradually lose much of the muscle and body fat that has cushioned and protected their bones.   Loss of padding in the hip area may make the hip bones more vulnerable if the person falls.

Hip Protectors look much like the knee and elbow pads used by roller-bladders, but are worn under clothing. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that using the protectors can reduce injury by 60 percent.

Unprotected Fall: Direct impact (force) to the major throcanter (hip bone) which can lead to hip fracture.

With an Energy Shunting Hip Protector: The impact (force) is diverted onto the soft tissue surrounding the hip bone.

Scientific studies on hip protectors and clinical tests have shown that people are less likely to suffer from a hip fracture when wearing hip protectors. Hip protectors can therefore be an important step toward hip fractur prevention and fall protection. HIProtector HIPS, Safehip, KPH, CuraMedica and HipGuard hip protectors are preventive devices, made to reduce the risk of hip fractures occurring as a result of an impact to the hipbone.

Energy Shunting Hip Protector: HIPS, Safehip, KPH, CuraMedica and HipGuard from HIProtector (www.HIProtector.com) are energy shunting (hard-shelled) hip protectors. The hip protector is a rigid shell made of durable plastic, designed to divert a direct impact away from the greater throchanter (hipbone) onto the surrounding soft tissue (only a small amount of the energy created by the fall is absorbed by the hip-protector itself during the impact).

The size of impact released on a falling person has been determined, through biomechanical tests, and physical calculations, to be approximately 3 kN (kilo Newtons). As elderly people, especially women with osteoporosis, have a lower bone strength, a fall will, in many cases, lead to a hip fracture.