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Preoperative urine-specific gravity and the incidence of complications after hip fracture surgery: A prospective,
Sandra I Ylinenvaara1, Olof Elisson, Kim Berg
1From the Department of Anaesthesiology, Vrinnevi Hospital, Norrköping (SIY, OE, KB, HK), and the Department of Anaesthesiology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden (JHZ, RGH).
Background:
Mild to moderately severe dehydration is common in the elderly, but its relationship to surgical outcome is unclear.
Objectives:
To study the incidence of dehydration prior to hip fracture surgery and its relationship to postoperative complications.
Design:
Prospective observational study.
Setting:
Operation department and orthopaedic ward at a regional hospital.
Patients:
Forty-five patients [median (interquartile range) age 78 (75 to 86) years] undergoing acute hip fracture surgery.
Interventions:
A urine sample was taken on admission to the operating theatre. Complications were assessed 2 days postoperatively using a check-list.
Main Outcome Measures:
Dehydration was considered to be present if the urinary specific gravity was 1.020 or higher, indicating renal water conservation. The number and type of postoperative complications were recorded.
Results:
Dehydration was present in one third of the patients. Sixty percent of these patients had at least one postoperative complication, whereas the corresponding proportion was 30% in the euhydrated patients (P < 0.01). Only one patient (3%) had more than one complication in the euhydrated group compared with six patients (40%) in the dehydrated group (P < 0.01). Euhydrated patients had a mean of 0.3 postoperative complications per surgery, whereas dehydrated patients scored 1.1 complications (P < 0.015). The higher incidence included confusion, arterial desaturation and cardiovascular events.
Conclusion:
Dehydration before surgery nearly quadrupled the number of postoperative complications after hip fracture repair.
Trial Registration:
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT 01294930.