The anterior twisting of the femoral neck is called what?

• A. Femoral Offset
• B. Femoral Neck
• C. Femoral Anteversion
• D. Greater Trochanter

Answer: (C)

Femoral anteversion is the anterior twisting of the femoral neck relative to the shaft. This forward rotation of the neck changes the orientation of the head of the femur within the hip joint. Clinically, increased anteversion makes the hip sit more in internal rotation, which can show up as a toe-in gait in children. Normal adults have a certain range of torsion, and deviations from that range describe either increased anteversion or retroversion (twist backward).

The other terms don’t describe this twist: femoral offset is a measurement of the horizontal distance between the center of the femoral head and the axis of the shaft, not twist; the femoral neck is simply the region between head and shaft; the greater trochanter is a bony prominence, not a twist.