'How to deal with this, that and the other?' An orthopaedic surgeon's unexpected encounter with a trio of problems in an elderly man.

This is the first clinical report of a psoas abscess encountered during a routine hemiarthroplasty surgery for a femoral neck fracture in a man with a recent urinary tract infection. There were no prior symptoms to suggest a psoas abscess, which was present on the same side as the hip fracture, apart from a history of recurrent urinary tract infection. The surgery had to be altered intraoperatively to that of an excision arthroplasty of the displaced non-viable femoral head along with insertion of an antibiotic-impregnated cement spacer into the hip joint.