Early Surgery For Hip Fracture May Benefit Older Adults

Hip fractures in the elderly can cause life endangering complications. Surgery is always considered the best option for a fractured hip but the speed of the surgery also has a significant impact on the outcome, according to a latest study.

According to a new study led by researchers at McMaster University, faster surgery for hip fractures in older adults may help in improving the outcome.

"We believe that the shortest time possible to treatment may provide the greatest potential for benefit, as is the case in acute heart attack and stroke," Dr. P.J. Devereaux, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster and co-principal investigator of the pilot trial, said in a statement.

One of the major public health issues especially in the Western countries is 'hip fractures'. They are serious fall injuries that most often result in long lasting functional impairment.  Hip fractures trigger pain, bleeding and immobility and also cause coagulation and stress systems that lead to further medical complications in those waiting for surgeries. America ranks first in the world with the number of hip fractures reaching 300,000 per year. Due to a lengthy recovery period, most elderly people who sustain a hip fracture are likely to die of the injury.  

In countries like Canada, due to the time consuming pre-surgery procedures and lack of sufficient operating clinics, a patient has to wait for nearly 24 hours or longer for a hip surgery.

This new study was based on 60 people aged 45 or above in Canada and India. Out of the total number of participants with hip fracture, only half received accelerated surgery within six hours and the rest half underwent a surgery after 24 hours of diagnosis.

The researchers noticed that out of those patients who received the standard care of surgery i.e. 24 hours, nearly 47 percent had major health complications that included stroke, heart attack, death, blood clot, excessive bleeding and pneumonia, whereas just 30 percent of the accelerated surgery patient suffered one of the above mentioned complications.

Dr. Mohit Bhandari, a professor of surgery at the McMaster medical school concluded saying, "This pilot provides encouraging evidence that accelerated surgery may substantially improve outcomes in these patients."

The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).