Background and purpose

Hip fractures are associated with high mortality, but the cause of this is still not entirely clear. We investigated the effect of surgical delay, weekends, holidays, and time of day admission on mortality in hip fracture patients.

Patients and methods

Using data from the Danish National Indicator Project, we identified 38,020 patients admitted from 2003 to 2010. Logistic regression analysis was used to study the association between sex, age, weekend or holiday admission, night-time admission, time to surgery, and ASA score on the one hand and mortality on the other.

Results

The risk of death in hospital increased with surgical delay (odds ratio (OR) = 1.3 per 24 h of delay), ASA score (OR (per point added) = 2.3), sex (OR for men 2.2), and age (OR (per 5 years) = 1.4). The mortality rate for patients admitted during weekends or public holidays, or at night, was similar to that found for those admitted during working days.

Interpretation

Minimizing surgical delay is the most important factor in reducing mortality in hip fracture patients.

Background. The prone position is applied to facilitate surgery of the back and to improve oxygenation in the respirator-treated patient. In particular, with positive pressure ventilation the prone position reduces venous return to the heart and in turn cardiac output (CO) with consequences for cerebral blood flow. We tested in healthy subjects the hypothesis that rotating the head in the prone position reduces cerebral blood flow. Methods. Mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), stroke volume (SV), and CO were determined, together with the middle cerebral artery mean blood velocity (MCA Vmean) and jugular vein diameters bilaterally in 22 healthy subjects in the prone position with the head centered, respectively, rotated sideways, with and without positive pressure breathing (10 cmH2O). Results. The prone position reduced SV (by 5.4 ± 1.5%; P < 0.05) and CO (by 2.3 ± 1.9 %), and slightly increased MAP (from 78 ± 3 to 80 ± 2 mmHg) as well as bilateral jugular vein diameters, leaving MCA Vmean unchanged. Positive pressure breathing in the prone position increased MAP (by 3.6 ± 0.8 mmHg) but further reduced SV and CO (by 9.3 ± 1.3 % and 7.2 ± 2.4 % below baseline) while MCA Vmean was maintained. The head-rotated prone position with positive pressure breathing augmented MAP further (87 ± 2 mmHg) but not CO, narrowed both jugular vein diameters, and reduced MCA Vmean (by 8.6 ± 3.2 %). Conclusion. During positive pressure breathing the prone position with sideways rotated head reduces MCA Vmean ~10% in spite of an elevated MAP. Prone positioning with rotated head affects both CBF and cerebrovenous drainage indicating that optimal brain perfusion requires head centering.

Background

There is a 5- to 8-fold increased risk of mortality during the first 3 months after a hip fracture. Several risk factors are known. We studied the predictive value (for mortality) of routine blood tests taken on admission.

Methods

792 hip fracture patients were included prospectively; blood tests were taken on admission. Follow-up data on mortality were obtained from the civil registration system. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on whether they had survived at least 90 days after the hip fracture. To estimate which laboratory tests could be used to predict outcome, we used receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curves.

Results

3-month mortality could be predicted with 69% accuracy from the level of plasma creatinine in standard admission blood tests. The mortality in patients with elevated levels of creatinine was almost 3-fold that of the patients with normal creatinine. Mortality was also associated with age, low blood hemoglobin, high plasma potassium, and low plasma albumin levels.

Interpretation

Our findings could be of use in identifying patients who might benefit from increased attention perioperatively.