Factors associated with post-operative delirium in hip fracture patients: what should we care

The postoperative delirium is a common yet serious complication in elderly patients with hip fracture. We aimed to evaluate the potential risk factors of delirium in patients with hip fracture, to provide reliable evidence to the clinical management of hip fracture.

This study was a retrospective design. Elderly patients who underwent hip fracture surgery in our hospital from June 1, 2019 to December 30, 2020 were selected. The characteristics and treatment data of delirium and no delirium patients were collected and compared. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the influencing factors affecting postoperative delirium in elderly patients with hip fracture.

A total of 245 patients with hip fracture were included, the incidence of postoperative delirium in patients with hip fracture was 13.06%. There were significant differences in the age, BMI, history of delirium, estimated blood loss and duration of surgery (all p  < 0.05). There were significant differences in the albumin and TSH between delirium and no delirium group (all p < 0.05), Logistics analyses indicated that age ≥ 75 years (OR 3.112, 95% CI 1.527-5.742), BMI ≥ 24 kg/m² (OR 2.127, 95% CI 1.144-3.598), history of delirium (OR 1.754, 95% CI 1.173-2.347), estimated blood loss ≥ 400 mL (OR 1.698, 95% CI 1.427-1.946), duration of surgery ≥ 120 min (OR 2.138, 95% CI 1.126-3.085), preoperative albumin ≤ 40 g/L (OR 1.845, 95% CI 1.102-2.835) and TSH ≤ 2 mU/L (OR 2.226, 95% CI 1.329-4.011) were the independent risk factors of postoperative delirium in patients with hip fracture(all p < 0.05).

Postoperative delirium is very common in elderly patients with hip fracture, and it is associated with many risk factors, clinical preventions targeted on those risk factors are needed to reduce the postoperative delirium.