Hip fractures in elderly patients are managed at both major trauma centers (MTC) and trauma units (TU). Previous evidence has demonstrated the importance of early surgery to reduce the morbidity and mortality related to the injury. The aim of this study is to compare the ‘time to theatre' and ‘30 day mortality' in TUs versus MTC in UK.

A retrospective review of prospectively collected data on NHFD was performed. The average ‘time to theatre' in hours and ‘30 day mortality' of all hospitals were analysed between January and December 2018. Further subgroup analysis was done to check for any regional variations; in each instance a Shapiro-Wilk test was used to check for normal distribution, followed by a one-way ANOVA with a Tukey's post hoc test.

Data from 158 hospitals in England (ENG), Wales (WAL) and Northern Ireland (NI) were used; 18 of which were MTC. There were 57,936 operative cases in TUs and 8606 in MTC's. The mean time (hours) to surgery from presentation was 32.51 and 32.64 for TUs and MTC respectively (p=0.513).

There was no significant difference in ‘30 day mortality' (p=0.635) between TUs (6%) and 5.7% MTC's (5.7%), MTC's and TUs in ENG, WAL and NI (p=0.555), and MTC and WAL, NI and the different regions of ENG (p=0.209).

A significant difference was observed, between the regional practice for TUs versus MTC's in ENG, WAL and NI (p=0.001) and between MTC's and TUs in WAL, NI and the different regions of ENG (p=0.001), with patients waiting significantly longer in NI for their procedure (mean=60.25 hours, p=0.001)

There was no significant difference in time to surgery or 30 day mortality between TUs and MTC's, demonstrating comparable hip fracture care, despite MTCs need to prioritise more serious injuries.

Introduction

Patients with pre-existing dementia are more susceptible to hip fracture due to various risk factors such as age, decreased activity leading to sarcopenia and osteoporosis, Vitamin D deficiency and presence of Apolipoprotein gene. The mortality associated with dementia and fracture neck of femurs was thought to be 2.3 times more than that of patients with intact cognitive function. The aim of this study is to assess the mortality of patients at 28 days, 4 months and one year after undergoing surgery for fracture neck of femurs.