Impact of prehospital delay on postoperative complications and 5-year mortality in older adults with hip fractures

Purpose

Guidelines recommended early surgery for hip fracture to improve outcomes, yet it is often hindered by prehospital delays. However, it remains unclear whether prehospital delay independently leads to poor outcomes of the well-recognized impact of in-hospital delay for hip fracture surgery.

Methods

We included patients aged over 60 years old who underwent surgery for their first acute hip fracture between 2000 and 2022 at a national trauma center in Beijing, China. Patients were categorized into short prehospital delay (time from injury to hospital admission ≤ 48 h) or long prehospital delay (> 48 h) groups. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint of postoperative complications, and the secondary outcome was 5-year all-cause mortality. Multivariate logistic and Cox regression models were used to assess the association between exposure and outcomes.

Results

Among 3103 included patients (mean age, 78.1 ± 8.3 years; 69.1 % female), 1152 (37.1 %) experienced a long prehospital delay. Patients with long prehospital delay had a higher risk of postoperative complications (28.8 % vs. 16.8 %; adjusted odds ratio = 1.41, 95 % CI, 1.12–1.76, P < 0.01) and 5-year all-cause mortality (63.9 vs. 43.3 per 1000 person–years; adjusted hazard ratio = 1.25, 95 % CI, 1.01–1.57, P < 0.05) compared to those with short prehospital delay after adjusting for potential confounders including in-hospital delay.

Conclusion

Prehospital delays is associated with higher risk of postoperative complications and 5-year mortality in older adults with hip fractures, highlighting the need for public health policies to minimize such delays.