Does the type of hip fracture affect functional recovery in elderly patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation?

BACKGROUND

Hip fractures should not be considered as a single, homogeneous condition. Various determinants of functional recovery of patients with hip fracture have been proposed, such as age or type of fracture. The aim of this study was to determine if patients with an intertrochanteric fracture (ITF) had lower functional recovery characteristics with respect to those with a femoral neck fracture (FNF).

METHODS

A retrospective study was carried out on 531 elderly patients with hip fracture, surgically treated, admitted to a rehabilitation institute between December 1, 2014, and December 31, 2017. Patients underwent an individualized rehabilitation program for improving their physical function. The outcome measures of this study were the length of stay (LOS) in the rehabilitation institute, the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) gain, i.e. the difference in FIM score between discharge and admission, and the FIM efficiency, which represents the daily gain. Patients were also stratified by age categories and by different levels of functional independence, as evaluated with the FIM total score at baseline.

RESULTS

Age (p<0.05), LOS (p<0.005) and rehabilitation outcomes (FIM score and efficiency; p<0.05) differed significantly between patients with FNF and ITF. In particular, patients with ITF were older and more dependent at baseline. Moreover, they showed a lower FIM efficiency with respect to patients with FNF (p<0.05), which obtained a similar improvement in FIM total score of about 26 points but were discharged on average 3 days before. With aging, FIM efficiency decreased, while LOS increased. Patients highly dependent at baseline (FIM total score <40) had the lowest FIM gain and efficiency and the longest LOS respect to the more independent patients. Moreover, in older (85+ years) and in higher dependent patients the differences in the outcome measures between ITF and FNF were reduced.

CONCLUSIONS

The type of hip fracture could affect the LOS and FIM efficiency of younger and more independent patients with hip fracture during inpatient rehabilitation. In particular, patients with ITF require a longer rehabilitation period to achieve a similar functional gain as those with FNF.