Early Hip Fracture Surgery Reduces Mortality Save

CMAJ reports that seniors are more likely to survive a hip fracture if the surgery is done as soon as they’re admitted to the hospital - suggesting hospitals should expedite operating room access for patients whose surgery has already been delayed for nonmedical reasons. (Citation source: bit.ly/2KzdrCt) 

An international team of researchers estimated that 16.5 percent of in-hospital deaths after a hip fracture could have been avoided if patients had received surgery within 48 hours of checking into the hospital, according to the study published in CMAJ.

A claims database study in Canada studied the the outcomes of 139119 medically stable patients > 65 yrs who sustained a hip fracture according to the delay in hip surgery - admission day, inpatient day 2, on day 3 and after day 3.

The 30-day in-hospital mortality was 4.9% among patients who were surgically treated on admission day, but increased to 6.9% for surgery done after day 3. They calclulated an additional 10.9 deaths per 1000 surgeries if all surgeries were done after inpatient day 3 instead of admission day. The attributable proportion of deaths for delays beyond inpatient day 2 was 16.5% (95% CI 12.0% to 21.0%).