Characteristics of male hip fracture patients

Among men, hip fracture is the most common outcome of osteoporosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment, complications, short-term outcome and mortality of male hip fracture patients.

Operation theatre logs of all hip fracture patients operated on (1124 patients) at Kuopio University Hospital in 1989-1993 were reviewed. Medical records of the 276 male patients who underwent surgery (25 % of all patients) were studied.

233 hip fractures (86 %) in men were due to low energy trauma. Of these cases, 61 % of the fractures occurred at the femoral neck, 31 % were pertrochanteric and 8 % subtrochanteric. The vast majority (90 %) of these patients had some chronic medical condition, and in 66 % the condition influenced motory or sensory functions. Hemiarthroplasty was most often used for femoral neck fractures (64 %). Internal fixation was used for pertrochanteric (97 %) and subtrochanteric (94 %) fractures. 20 % of the men had post-operative complications during the 1.5 year follow-up. During primary hospitalisation mortality was 3 %. Within 1.5 years of the fracture 40 % of the men had died, resulting in a mortality three times higher than age matched Finnish male population.