Citation

Gao YS. ANZ J. Surg. 2019; 89(9): e1173.

Affiliation

Centre for Orthopaedic Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/ans.15276

PMID

31522475

Abstract

I read with great interest the article by Ng et al.1 They found that 4.1% of patients with hip fractures had concurrent upper limb injuries who might require longer rehabilitation period. However, no significant differences were revealed regarding acute length of stay and mortality at discharge as well as at 30 days. I am delighted to see that the orthogeriatric service has been popularized in the Western Australia to facilitate multidisciplinary treatment of hip fractures.

However, I think some critical issues have to be clarified in the article. First, geriatric hip fractures are mainly induced by a low‐energy mechanism, but these fractures in the young adults are predominantly caused by high energy with more concurrent injuries. This study enrolled patients over the age of 50 years, but not 65 and more, and used average age to reflect the distribution of the critical baseline data. I think a median age with quantile might be better for comparison, due to the wide range of age ...

Language: en