High Death Risk from Hip Surgery Linked to Emergency Room Traffic

Hip fracture operations can be stressful, particularly for older adults. Around 13% of patients aged above 70 don’t survive 60 days after the fracture.

Research shows that the chance of survival for older adults may depend on how busy the surgeons are with other emergency procedures.

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‘The risk of dying from hip surgery increases in older adults if surgeons are in a hurry.’
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"When the operating room is busy, 20% more patients die within 60 days after the operation," says Professor Johan Håkon Bjørngaard.

When the demand for surgery is high, surgeons can get very busy. During such times, hip fracture patients have to wait 20 % longer on average before being operated on, which can have serious, sometimes fatal, consequences.

The research team analyzed information from more than 60 000 hip surgeries and all simultaneous emergency surgeries from two hospitals.

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Researchers Andreas Asheim and Sara Marie Nilsen state, "We investigated how many older people over the age of 70 died during the first 60 days following a hip operation when particularly many emergency patients were queued up for surgery at the hospitals."

During busy periods, 40% of the patients waiting in the operating wards are usually those who have been brought in recently for emergency surgery. The number can drop to 25% in the quietest periods.

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In older people, hip fractures often require surgeries. In the study, hip surgery patients had an average age of 85, with women making up 72%. The average wait time for being operated on was found to be around 20 hours.

Since older people naturally have a greater risk of dying, age is one reason why mortality is high following surgery. Also, the capacity of the hospitals plays a major role.

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Prior research has shown that patients with hip fractures have a greater death risk following surgery if they get discharged from the hospital early due to lack of space.

Lars Gunnar Johnsen, Orthopedist, comments, “Prioritising patients is part of a discussion about organizing emergency surgery. This could mean that we need to screen surgery hip fracture patients more than what's currently being done.”

Source-Medindia