Does spinal anaesthesia improve mortality or length of hospital stay compared to general anaesthesia in patients undergoing surgical fixation of hip fractures?
Spinal and general anaesthesia result in similar mortality and length of hospital stay for patients undergoing hip fracture surgery.
One thousand, three hundred and thirty three patients who underwent anaesthesia for surgical fixation of a hip fracture were studied prospectively to assess the effects on outcome of general and spinal anaesthesia. There were no significant differences between the groups in risk factors, length of hospital stay or mortality rates after 30 days or one year. The data presented may be useful for those wishing to audit anaesthetic services provided to patients with hip fracture.
Sutcliffe et al. (1994) studied this question.