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General Anesthesia Versus Regional Anesthesia in the Elderly Patients Undergoing Hip Fracture Surgeries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

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Abstract

Background

Surgery is the preferred treatment option for the elderly patients with hip fractures. However, the choice of general anesthesia (GA) or regional anesthesia (RA) remains controversial. The quality of evidence has further improved with the advent of several high-quality randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in the last two years. The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical outcomes of two anesthetic techniques in elderly patients undergoing hip fracture surgeries.

Methods

Eligible studies were identified from PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE and reference lists from January 2000 to June 2022 in this current systematic review and meta-analysis. The outcomes included the surgery-related outcomes (duration of surgery, duration of anesthesia, intraoperative blood loss and number of transfusions) and postoperative outcomes (30-day mortality, postoperative delirium,cardiovascular events and other complications).

Results

A total of 10 RCTs were included, and a total of 3594 patients were analyzed. RA was associated with shorter duration of surgery, shorter length of hospital stays and less intraoperative blood loss compared to GA. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the number of blood transfusions, duration of anesthesia, 30-day mortality or postoperative delirium.

Conclusions

Our pooled analysis identified no significant differences in terms of the safety between RA and GA, while RA reduces intraoperative blood loss, length of hospital stays and duration of surgery. These results suggest that RA appears to be preferable for the elderly patients with hip fractures.

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Funding

This current study was supported by grants from Winfast Charity Foundation Project (YL20220525) and Jiangsu Provincial Medical Talent, the Project of Invigorating Health Care through Science, Technology and Education (ZDRCA2016083).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Mu-Min Cao, Yuan-Wei Zhang and Ren-Wang Sheng have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedics, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, No. 87 Ding Jia Qiao, Nanjing, 210009, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Mu-Min Cao, Yuan-Wei Zhang, Ren-Wang Sheng, Wang Gao, Yu-Cheng Gao & Yun-Feng Rui

  2. School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Mu-Min Cao, Yuan-Wei Zhang, Ren-Wang Sheng, Wang Gao, Qian-Rui Kang, Yu-Cheng Gao, Xiao-Dong Qiu & Yun-Feng Rui

  3. Orthopaedic Trauma Institute (OTI), Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Mu-Min Cao, Yuan-Wei Zhang, Ren-Wang Sheng, Wang Gao, Yu-Cheng Gao & Yun-Feng Rui

  4. Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) for Geriatric Hip Fracture Management, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Mu-Min Cao, Yuan-Wei Zhang, Ren-Wang Sheng, Wang Gao, Qian-Rui Kang, Yu-Cheng Gao, Xiao-Dong Qiu & Yun-Feng Rui

  5. Department of Anesthesiology, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Qian-Rui Kang & Xiao-Dong Qiu

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  1. Mu-Min Cao
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Contributions

MMC and YFR designed this current study. MMC, YWZ, RWS, WG, QRK, YCG and XDQ contributed to data collection and interpretation. MMC, YWZ and RWS wrote the manuscript. All the authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yun-Feng Rui.

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Cao, MM., Zhang, YW., Sheng, RW. et al. General Anesthesia Versus Regional Anesthesia in the Elderly Patients Undergoing Hip Fracture Surgeries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. World J Surg 47, 1444–1456 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-023-06949-y

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