Does admission to a designated orthopaedic geriatric unit improve mortality, length of stay, or placement in women over 65 with hip fractures?
A designated orthopaedic geriatric unit for elderly women with hip fractures does not improve mortality, length of stay, or placement compared to standard orthopaedic wards, but improves recognition and treatment of medical conditions.
A randomised controlled trial of two management regimens was carried out in women patients over 65 years of age with hip fractures. Ninety seven patients were admitted to a designated orthopaedic geriatric unit and 125 to orthopaedic wards. No difference was observed in mortality, length of stay, or placement of patients between the two groups. More medical conditions were recognised and treated in patients in the orthopaedic geriatric unit group. It is concluded that designated orthopaedic geriatric units can provide medical care to these patients and should be administered without additional cost.
Gilchrist et al. (Sat,) studied this question.