Lower Death Rate When Senior Hip Fractures are Repaired Quickly

Hip fractures in seniors are a very traumatic and life altering injury. What happens is that the hip fracture can send patients with an already existing case of dementia and heart failure on an expedited trip to hospice and eventually death. This happens due to the patient becoming very bedridden as a result of the limit of mobility due to the fracture itself.

Researchers have found through a recent study conclusion that if geriatric patients have their hip surgery within the first 24 (maximum 48) hours of the break, then their risk of post op death was greatly reduced. It was concluded that 16.5 percent of deaths in the hospital following a broken hip could have been prevented had the surgery to repair the hip been done within the first 48 hours of arriving at the hospital. By performing the surgery with such a time urgency, there is less exposure to inflammation, and in turn leads to reduced mortality.

Some hospitals have implemented specialized orthopedic surgical teams that respond to pages of geriatric hip fractures to ensure that the surgery is put as a priority and done before the 48 hour mark. Some University hospitals have it as their set goal to even have the surgery done within the 24 hours upon admission and having this dedicated surgical team enables them to reach and much of the time exceed the goal with averages of less then 24 hours. Some physicians point out that implementing these types of programs are very costly to hospitals and require many resources, but this should be practice that is adopted universally because it saves many lives by doing so.