Prognosis-determined rehabilitation of hip fractures.

Hip fracture patients were selected for rehabilitation using a prognostic scheme created by multiple linear discriminant analysis. The outcome of positive or negative rehabilitation prognosis was depicted graphically against time. The majority of patients (77%) who had been admitted from their own homes had a good prognosis, and 84% of them returned home within 2 months. The optimum rehabilitation time for patients with a negative prognosis was reached 4 months post-fracture, by which time most of them had either returned to their own or to an old people's home. Although the majority (84%) from the latter had a negative prognosis, more than half (53%) were rehabilitated within 2 months. Prognosis-determined rehabilitation was found to be effective. Cost efficient management of the increasing number of fractures in the elderly demands short hospitalization and minimum institutional reconvalescence.