"non-union" means this: when a bone is healed doctors speak of it being united. Bone union is a process whereby new bone cells are generated that knit (or unite) the broken ends of the bone together. Hence when healing is completed, we speak of the fracture as being united. A non-union, therefore, is when that healing process either doesn't take place or fails to complete its job. There are several varieties of this term. A 'mal-union' is when the fracture site is misplaced in some way and a 'delayed union' is when healing starts but fails to complete the process.
To heal correctly, the bone ends have to be fresh and with a goodly blood supple and in a good alignment to one another. If these points are not in place and/or there is soft tissue between the bone ends, then the bone ends may start to heal over on their own and produce what is known as a false joint or pseudarthrosis (the ancient Greek term for it). If this is present for a prolonged period of time, it required surgical intervention in the form of scraping the abnormal bone healing off the bone ends and applying a bone graft to stimulate the production so fresh, infant bone cells.
So, if you are still with me - it's likely that the fracture in your femur has been there for some time, anything over 4 months, and needs to be attended to. It all depends where to fracture is - do you know this at all? If can tell me this I can expand upon my little tutorial!
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