Odontoid fractures yielded higher mortality risks after initial injury vs. hip fractures
Key takeaways:
- Odds of a mortality event were 10% after hip fracture vs. 25% after odontoid fracture 2 years after initial injury.
- At 4 years, the odds were 20% in the hip fracture group vs. 30% in the odontoid fracture group.
Presented results showed patients with odontoid fractures experienced significantly higher mortality risks 2 and 4 years after initial injury compared with patients with hip fractures.
“This paper highlights the stark difference [in mortality risk] and will hopefully bring a bit more increased attention to [the odontoid] patient population and see what we can do from an intervention standpoint to see if we can decrease that mortality risk,” Ram Alluri, MD, a spine surgeon with Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California, told Healio about results presented at the North American Spine Society Annual Meeting.
Using the California state database, Alluri and colleagues matched 21,994 patients with hip fractures with 2,217 patients with odontoid fractures based on age, gender and race. Researchers performed a multivariate analysis with significant comorbidities as covariates and analyzed mortality at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years and 4 years for both cohorts.
“At 2 years in the hip fracture cohort, the odds of having a mortality event was about 10% compared to if you had a geriatric odontoid fracture, the odds of sustaining a mortality at 2 years was 25%,” Alluri said.
At 4 years after the initial injury, odds of sustaining a mortality event were 20% after hip fracture vs. 30% after odontoid fracture, according to Alluri.
“Hopefully, the next iterations of studies coming into the pipeline will look at things we can do as clinicians to minimize [mortality] risk, whether it is increased expeditious care in terms of those who need surgical management,” Alluri said.
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Miles ES, et al. Odontoid fractures portend higher mortality risk compared to hip fractures: A matched cohort analysis. Presented at: North American Spine Society Annual Meeting; Sept. 25-28, 2024; Chicago.
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