Abstract
Hip fractures are one of the leading causes of morbidity in the elderly population. A large reduction in morbidity can be achieved if these individuals can have definitive treatment rapidly. However, this is not always achievable to a multi factorial host of contributing factors. Therefore, to enable us to understand some aspect of why these delays, if any occur, the following study was undertaken.
The purpose of the study is to relate the place at which the patient fell, to the time of day for admission to casualty. This will enable us to ascertain whether there is a relationship between the location of injury and the time taken to admission into hospital; if there is such a correlation, then it will enable us to identify factors which will expedite an individuals attendance to hospital.
Designs: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data for 5273 consecutive admission to one centre with a confirmed proximal femoral fracture from January 1989 to November 2006.
Setting: Peterborough District Hospital
Results: Individuals who sustained an injury inside their own home living alone were more likely to suffer a delay in attendance to the hospital with a fracture (Median 8 hours), compared to individuals who live in there own home living with one or more individual (Median 3 hours) or those who fell indoors at other locations (Median 5 hours) or outside (Median 2 hours) were their falls were witnessed. Also it was noticed that patients living in there own homes fell during the early hours of the day, while patients who had a fall outside fell mainly during ‘working hours’ where as patients in hospital mainly had a fall during night time or mid day.
Conclusion: There is a quantifiable correlation demonstrated between place of injury and the delay in attendance to hospital.
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