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What do hip fracture patients die from?

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Abstract

Hip fractures in the elderly are associated with an increased mortality rate, even if they are operated within the recommended time window. However, the causes of mortality vary considerably depending on the postoperative period and the patients’ comorbidities. In the 30-day postoperative period, the most common causes of death are acute processes such as bacterial and aspiration pneumonia followed by myocardial infarction, cancer, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, stroke, pulmonary embolism, and acute renal failure. In the 6-month and 1-year postoperative period, chronic processes appear to be the most important causes of death, as well as decompensation of patients’ chronic diseases. To enhance the literature, we performed this literature review to summarize and discuss the causes of mortality of elderly hip fracture patients depending on the postoperative period that they occur, and possibly to address the question what do hip fracture patients die from? Our aim was to perform an interesting and concise paper that the curious reader will find interesting and informative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine and Cardiology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Spyridon Katsanos

  2. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Center, Athens, Greece

    Evanthia Mitsiokapa

  3. General Practice/Family Medicine, Laiko Hospital, Athens, Greece

    Aikaterini Tsatsaragkou

  4. First Department of Orthopaedics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Spyridon Sioutis, Lampros Reppas, Dimitrios Mastrokalos, Dimitrios Koulalis & Andreas F. Mavrogenis

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  1. Spyridon Katsanos
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  2. Spyridon Sioutis
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Correspondence to Andreas F. Mavrogenis.

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Katsanos, S., Sioutis, S., Reppas, L. et al. What do hip fracture patients die from?. Eur J Orthop Surg Traumatol 33, 751–757 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00590-022-03250-x

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