Why are hip fractures in the elderly so deadly?
In: Biology
Roughly 1 in 3 who break their hip pass away within a year. A few pass away from complications related to the hip fracture itself (complications from surgery like blood loss or stress on the heart from anesthesia) and some pass away directly as a result of complications from the decreased mobility in the recovery period (pneumonias, blood clots, pressure sores, etx). However many that pass away don’t fall clearly into one of these groups. This is because the hip fracture itself is a symptom of increasing overall frailty and general poor health. In other words- a significant fraction of the people who pass away after a hip fracture would probably have passed away in that time frame or close to it whether the hip fracture happened or not. When people’s health is declining their balance gets worse, muscles get weaker, and bones get weaker and they are more likely to fall and break their hip in the first place.
Latest Answers