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. 2014 Sep;5(3):138-40.
doi: 10.1177/2151458514537273.

Timing of hip fracture surgery in the elderly

Daniel J Lee  1 , John C Elfar  1
Affiliations

Timing of hip fracture surgery in the elderly

Daniel J Lee et al. Geriatr Orthop Surg Rehabil. 2014 Sep.

Abstract

The effect of preoperative wait time for surgery is a long-standing subject of debate. Although there is disagreement among clinicians on whether early surgery confers a survival benefit per se, most reports agree that early surgery improves other outcomes such as length of stay, the incidence of pressure sores, and return to independent living. Therefore, it would seem prudent to surgically treat elderly patients with hip fractures within the first 48 hours of admission. However, the current body of evidence is observational in nature and carries the potential for bias inherent in such analyses. Evidence in the form of a large randomized controlled trial may ultimately be required to fully evaluate the impact of surgical timing on patients with fractures of the hip.

Keywords: complications; hip fracture; length of stay; mortality; surgical timing.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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