Body system: Musculoskeletal SystemRegulation: 38 CFR § 4.71aDBQ: DBQ MUSC Hip and thigh
This diagnostic code covers impairment of the femur (your thigh bone) when it doesn't heal properly after a fracture. The VA rates this condition at either 60% or 80% depending on how badly the bone healed. An 80% rating applies when you have a nonunion (the bone never properly healed back together) with loose motion from a spiral or oblique fracture, while a 60% rating is for fractures of the surgical neck that formed a false joint.
Rating levels
- 80% — A fracture in the main shaft or neck area of your thighbone (femur) that has not healed properly and the broken pieces move around loosely when you move your leg. This applies specifically to spiral fractures (where the break twists around the bone) or oblique fractures (where the break goes diagonally across the bone), and the bone ends remain separated and unstable rather than fusing back together.
- 60% — You have a broken thigh bone (femur) where the fracture has not healed properly and the bone pieces have not grown back together (nonunion), but the broken pieces are stable and don't move around loosely. You can still put weight on your leg and walk, but you need to wear a brace or other supportive device to do so safely.
- 60% — You have a fracture of the surgical neck of the femur, the narrow part of the thighbone just below the ball of the hip joint, and it has not healed: the broken ends move against each other instead of fusing, which doctors call a false joint (pseudarthrosis). That unstable, painful connection seriously limits weight bearing and walking. Fractures of the shaft or the anatomical neck with nonunion are the two levels above.
- Note — When the femur healed in a bad position (malunion), the VA rates the knee or hip impairment it causes under the knee codes (DC 5256, 5257, 5260 or 5261) or the hip codes (DC 5250 to 5254), whichever gives the highest rating.