Hip Fracture Surgery and Survival in Centenarians

Hip fracture (HF) is increasingly frequent with advancing age. Studies describing the HF incidence rate and survival after surgery in centenarians are scanty. To fill this gap, we performed a large population-based investigation on Lombardy centenarians (Italy).

Retrospective observational cohort study based on information from the Healthcare Utilization Database. Among the cohort of 7,830 residents that reached 100 years of age between 2004 and 2011, incidence rate of HF was calculated. Two hundred fifty-nine patients were discharged alive from a hospital after HF and surgical repair (HF cohort). For each HF cohort member, a control was randomly selected from the initial cohort to be matched for gender and date of birth, and who did not experience HF from the date of their hundredth birthday until the date of hospital discharge of the corresponding HF cohort member. The survival curves and the hazard functions of HF and control cohort were calculated within 2 years.

Over a mean follow-up of 1.85 years, HF incidence rate was 23.1 per 1,000 centenarians per year. Survival probability was significantly lower in HF cohort than in control cohort (31.5 vs 48.1%, p < .001). Hazard functions showed an increased risk of death in HF cohort than in control cohort, especially in the 3 months after surgery.

Survival analysis exhibited an excess mortality in the first 3 months among HF cohort members, but not beyond this period. Every effort to counteract HF is warranted, including prevention of falls and high quality of care, especially in the early postsurgical time.