Results

Total number of 176 hip fractures, echocardiogram was done pre-operatively in 22 patients (12.5%). The request for echo was given by the anaesthetic team in 18/22 patients, the commonest reason for request being a cardiac murmur detected clinically in 20/22 patients.

There was a delay in surgery more than 24 hours in 17/22 patients who had an echocardiogram (77%) compared to a 38% delay in patients who did not.

The echocardiogram findings showed significant aortic stenosis in 4/22 (18%). There was no cancellation of surgery due to echocardiogram findings Five had general anaesthetic.

There was alteration in intra-operative management in two out of the 22 patients (8%) Invasive arterial monitoring was used in those two patients. None had intra-operative complications or ITU/HDU care post-operatively. Post-operatively 6/22 developed complications. 15/22 patients had a delay in discharge (68%) of more than 21 days compared to the 41% delay in patients who did not have an echocardiogram. We had a mortality rate of 22.7% (5/22) in these patients at 1 month compared to a mortality rate of 12% in patients without echocardiogram.