Document and Entity Information (USD $) In Millions, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Mar. 14, 2014	Jun. 30, 2012
Document And Entity Information [Abstract]
Document Type	10-K/A
Amendment Flag	true
Amendment Description	Orthofix International N.V. (together with its respective consolidated subsidiaries and affiliates, the “Company,” sometimes referred to as “we”, “us” or “our”) is filing this amendment (this “Amendment” or “Form 10-K/A”) to its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, originally filed on March 1, 2013 (the “Original Form 10-K”) to reflect the restatement of its consolidated financial statements as of and for each of the years ended December 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, and related disclosures described below. The restatement of the Original Form 10-K reflected in this Amendment corrects errors principally related to our accounting for revenue recognition for sales to distributors, our accounting for inventory reserves, and our accounting for royalties. Concurrently with the filing of this Amendment, we are also filing an amendment to our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2013 (the “2013 First Quarter 10-Q Amendment”) to reflect the restatement of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2013, which reflects the correction of the same types of errors with respect to such period. This Amendment also includes restated unaudited quarterly financial information for each of the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011 and amends certain other information in the Original Form 10-K as listed in “Items Amended by this Filing” below, as a result of the restatement of our financial statements.
Document Period End Date	Dec. 31, 2012
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2012
Document Fiscal Period Focus	FY
Trading Symbol	OFIX
Entity Registrant Name	ORTHOFIX INTERNATIONAL N V
Entity Central Index Key	0000884624
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Well-known Seasoned Issuer	Yes
Entity Current Reporting Status	No
Entity Voluntary Filers	No
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		18,187,194
Entity Public Float			$ 781.5