Abstract
Purpose of the study: To assess the effects of medical history, fracture type, method of treatment and complications on the risk of death in elderly patients treated for proximal femoral fracture. Discussion: The study focused attention only to elderly patients with proximal femoral fracture treated surgically.
The authors suggest that, by excluding patients treated conservatively, the group became more homogeneous and a more exact assessment of each factor's effect on death risk was possible. The investigated factors were recorded only during the first year following injury; however, death was recorded by the end of the study.
Using the assessment of cumulative survival, this allowed for a more accurate statistical evaluation of the effect of each factor on the risk of death. Conclusions: In patients over 70 years, a significantly shorter time of survival following the surgical treatment of proximal femoral fracture was found to be related to high age, male gender, multiple morbidity in the patient's medical history, poor patient's mobility before injury, general complications, development of pressure sores post-operatively, failed osteosynthesis requiring revision surgery and deep infection of the affected hip.
No relation to significantly shorter survival was found for the following factors: living in a pensioner's home before injury, fracture type, time between injury and surgery, type of anaesthesia and operative technique.