Purpose: Decubitus ulcers and post-operative infections significantly impact patients’ outcome and resource utilization. The purpose of this study is to report incidence of post-surgical infection, decubitus ulcer and associations to 30-day in-hospital mortality among elderly Canadians admitted for hip fracture.

Method: Statistics Canada’s national Health Person-Oriented Information database of linked acute care hospital discharges was queried for fiscal 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04 creating a cohort of 67,434 hip fracture patients aged 60+. Demographics, comorbidities (enhanced Charlson Index), fracture type and treatment were used in logistic regression models to report odds ratios for outcomes.

Results: Women were 76% of the cohort, median age was 82 yrs. Decubitus ulcer was detected in 2.3% of hip fracture patients. Increased risk was indentified for trochanteric fractures (OR 1.14, p< .05), dementia (OR 1.25, p< .05) and increasing age (OR: 1.02, p< .05). Decubitus ulcer more than doubled to 2.9% for those with 1–2 comorbidities, increasing to 6.3% for 3+ comorbidities. Between 1.2% and 1.3% of the cohort developed a post-surgical infection/inflammatory response depending on method used to calculate 30-day follow-up. Compared to internal fixation, arthroplasty showed higher infection (OR: 1.38, p< .05). Overall cohort 30-day in-patient mortality was 7%. Selected complications were significantly associated to 30-day in-hospital mortality (decubitus ulcer OR: 1.51 p< .05, post-surgical infection/inflammatory response (OR: 1.52 p< .05). Trochanteric fractures (OR: 1.19 p< .05) and hemi-arthroplasty (OR: 1.10, p< .05) were associated to 30-day mortality. No significant variation was found between total arthroplasty and internal fixation for 30-day in-patient mortality.

Conclusion: Quantification of these rates and risk factors may offer normative values to measure health system performance and possibly reflect care strategies and delays to surgery. Results may identify target groups at risk for complications and potentially highlight the impact of clinical decisions such as performing arthroplasty for all (displaced and undisplaced) femoral neck fractures.