Pauwel's angle is the angle between the line of a fracture of the neck of the femur and the horizontal as seen on an anterio-posterior radiograph. Pauwel's angle is named after the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

orthopedist Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics (American and British English spelling differences, alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgic ...

Friedrich Pauwels. Introduced in 1935, this system was the first biomechanical classification for femoral neck fractures, and is still in use.

Clinical Use

An increasing angle leads to a more unstable

fracture Fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displa ...

and an increase in the

shear stress Shear stress, often denoted by (Greek: tau), is the component of stress coplanar with a material cross section. It arises from the shear force, the component of force vector parallel to the material cross section. ''Normal stress'', on the ot ...

at the fracture site. This shear leads to higher rates of nonunion.

Pauwel's Classification

References

Musculoskeletal radiographic signs {{Orthopedics-stub