One-year mortality after a hip fracture: prospective study of a cohort of patients aged over 75 years old

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Abstract
Hip fracture (HF) is a serious complication of the elderly who have suffered a fall. Studies focused on patients over 75 years old without excluding the most vulnerable are not frequent. Before we can think about the creation of an orthogeriatric unit, we evaluated the mortality rate one year after a HF only of patients over 75 years old and we identified associated factors with mortality, functional status and living. Prospective observational study of 75 years and older hospitalized for a HF in a conventional orthopaedic unit. Surgical and geriatric data collected was: instrumental activities of daily life ADL (IADL), comorbidity (cumulative illness rating scale-geriatric (CIRS-G)), mini nutritional assessment (MNA), severity, preoperative delay. A phone assessment one year after HF was about: vital and functional status, living place. The mean age of 113 patients included was 87 years (76-100). The mortality rate was 35%. It was associated with low IADL day -15 (p< 0.01), elevated CIRS-G (p< 0.01), severity (p=0.05) and malnutrition (p=0.05). Preoperative delay average was 70.7 h (+/- 59) and 48.6% had surgery within 48 hours. Among survivors and from the data available, 45% had a functional decline one year after the HF and 11% were admitted in a nursing home. Without any exclusion of frailty patients, the one-year mortality rate of HF of people aged 75 years and older was 35%. HF is a public health challenge due to its high prevalence, poor prognosis with considerable expense. The associated factors help to explain why geriatricians are required and support the project of creating an orthogeriatric unit. Nevertheless, geriatric care will not likely change prognosis of the most vulnerable patients but could improve the level of care.