Good practices in the recovery of ambulation in octogenarian women with hip fractures

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Determine good recovery practices for ambulation of octogenarian women after hospital discharge after being operated on for hip fracture. METHODS: Prospective study during the second half of 2019, with 192 women (85.95 ± 5.1 years) with hip fracture. A medical history, fracture types, complications, surgical treatment, and assessment of the level of ambulation were recorded before and after six months of hospital discharge. RESULTS: 100 patients lived in the family home and 92 in an institutional center, 68.2% provided pertrochanteric fracture and a total of 3.7 comorbidities, all of them received spinal anesthesia and were admitted an average of 11.4 days. After six months, the patients showed a significant loss of functional independence with respect to the situation prior to the fracture, both for the ability to wander and for activities of daily living. It is noteworthy that the worst prognosis in the recovery of ambulation has to do with intermediate levels of ambulation and that the functional level of departure influences to a lesser extent than the place where they perform the recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Age is a factor that influences the recovery of hip fracture, but there are other influential factors since patients who remain in the family home have a better functional prognosis than those who recover in institutionalized centers, after six months of hospital discharge.