INCREASING NUMBERS OF OLDER PATIENTS ARE SAFELY UNDERGOING MAJOR ELECTIVE
ORTHOPEDIC PROCEDURES, EVEN AS HIP FRACTURE REMAINS A SERIOUS THREAT TO
THE MOBILITY AND LIVES OF THE ELDERLY. HERE IS A SNAPSHOT OF ORTHOPEDIC-
RELATED STATISTICS.
Hip Fractures and Mortality
About a third of people age 65 and older will fall, with hun-
dreds of thousands suffering potentially devastating hip fractures
each year.
Recent research published in JAMA Internal Medicine investigated
the effect of hip fractures on a particularly vulnerable population:
those living in nursing homes. The findings? More than a third died
within six months after a fracture; half either died or experienced
complete loss of independent locomotion. The mortality rate for
hip fracture patients tracked for one year was nearly 50 percent.
Go-go Octogenarians
The rates of major elective orthopedic procedures performed
on U.S. patients above age 80 significantly increased between
2000 and 2009, according to a study in The Journal of Bone &
Joint Surgery. The rate per 100,000 people rose from 40 to 102
for spinal fusion, 181 to 257 for total hip arthroplasty and 300
to 477 for total knee arthroplasty.
At the same time, in-hospital mortality rates fell, as did
complication rates among knee replacement and spinal fusion
patients who had few or no comorbidities. ■
Breaking Down
Orthopedics
WORTH THE COST
OVER A LIFETIME, the
per-patient societal benefit
of surgery for displaced hip
fractures exceeds the direct
medical costs by an estimated
$65,000–$68,000.
By Hannah Stuart
