Patients with diabetes have increased risk of mortality following hip fracture

Gulcelik NE, Bayraktar M, Caglar O, et al. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes. doi: 10.1055/s-0030-1270466.

Postoperative care of patients with diabetes — including glycemic control and postoperative complications — should be given particular attention in the effort to reduce mortality when dealing with hip fracture, according to Turkish researchers.

The team retrospectively reviewed 356 patients who reportedly sustained a hip fracture between January 1997 and June 2008. Of the 230 patients were eligible for the study, 69 patients had type 2 diabetes. According to the study abstract, the team reviewed each patient’s medical and nursing notes for additional information such as demographic factors, prior comorbidities, length of post-fracture stay and postoperative complications, presence and duration of diabetes, glucose levels, HbA1c levels, albumin and hemoglobin levels.

In all, the abstract reported, 148 women and 82 men with a mean age of 76.1 years were included in the study. The group observed that patients with diabetes who suffered hip fracture were at a higher risk of mortality than those patients without diabetes. Patients with diabetes had 1-year survival probability of 68%, with patients without diabetes displaying a 1-year survival probability of 87.3%. Advanced age, presence of postoperative complications, and elevated HbA1c levels were all identified as predictors of mortality among the patients with diabetes.