Home-going: prognostic factors concerning the major goal in treatment of elderly hip fracture-patients.

Two hundred and forty-one hip fracture patients over 70 years of age still living at home at the moment of the accident were followed prospectively until three months postoperatively. The patients were admitted to the department over a five year period (1978-1983). One hundred and forty-four patients returned home. In order to predict whether an elderly hip fracture patient will be able to return home within three months, the following prognostic factors will have to be taken into account: pre-operative functional status (p = 0.0001), ambulatory capacity at discharge (p = 0.0001), age (p = 0.001), presence of relatives at home to return to (p = 0.02) and general medical postoperative complications (p = 0.0006). In this respect it was noted that sex, fracture type or mechanical complication with possible operation do not significantly influence the home-going rate within three months after surgery (p greater than 0.05).