Early postoperative mortality following total hip arthroplasty in a community setting: a single surgeon experience

The senior author performed 4967 total hip arthroplasties, 4164 primary and 803 revision, between 1970 and 1996 in a community setting. All charts were evaluated for postoperative death including in-house, 30, 60, and 90 days following the procedure. 1.0 per cent of patients (42) died following a primary procedure and 0.87 per cent (7) died following a revision procedure within 3 months of surgery. The number of in-house deaths were 26 (0.52 per cent), including 21 in the primary group (0.5 per cent) and 5 in the revision group (0.62 per cent). In both the primary and revision situation and independent of co-morbidities, age greater than 70 years was significantly associated with increased risk for post-operative mortality (p<0.0001), with 0.44% mortality in patients aged 70 years or younger (0.51 per cent primary and 0.00 per cent revision), and 1.45 per cent mortality in patients greater than 70 years of age (1.38 per cent primary and 1.86 per cent revision). This experience of a single surgeon with a high volume community practice performing both primary and revision total hip arthroplasty, documents a low but significant incidence of postoperative death in the first 3 months following total hip arthroplasty (0.98 per cent).