"Multidisciplinary fast-track" care can significantly reduce risk of mortality among hip fracture patients at least 80 years old: a single-center retrospective study.

BACKGROUND

"Multidisciplinary fast-track" (MFT) care can accelerate recovery and improve prognosis after surgery, but whether it is effective in older people after hip fracture surgery is unclear.

METHODS

We retrospectively compared one-year all-cause mortality between hip fracture patients at least 80 years old at our institution who underwent hip fracture surgery between January 2014 and December 2018 and who then received MFT or conventional care. Multivariable regression was used to assess the association between MFT care and mortality after adjustment for confounders.

RESULTS

The final analysis included 247 patients who received MFT care and 438 who received conventional orthopedic care. The MFT group showed significantly lower one-year mortality (8.9% vs. 14.4%, P = 0.037). Log-rank testing of Kaplan-Meier survival curves confirmed the survival advantage. However, the two groups did not differ significantly in rates of mortality during hospitalization or at 30 or 90 days after surgery. Regression analysis confirmed that MFT care was associated with lower risk of one-year mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 0.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.281-0.788, P = 0.04), and the survival benefit was confirmed in subgroups of patients with anemia (HR 0.453, 95% CI 0.268-0.767, P = 0.003) and patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists grade III (HR 0.202, 95% CI 0.08-0.51, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

MFT care can reduce one-year mortality among hip fracture patients at least 80 years old. This finding should be verified and extended in multi-center randomized controlled trials.