Legal Nurse Consultants Helpful in the Hip Fracture Lawsuit
Seniors with hip fractures have high risk of death soon after injury, that persists long term. Researchers found risk of death over 60 tripled the first year. Hip fractures linked to twofold increased risk of dying eight years or more after injury. Lead author Michail Katsoulis noted “post-operative complications, such as cardiac and pulmonary ones, have been mostly implicated for the excess short-term mortality after the fracture.”
Complications include blood clots and pneumonia. Findings based on data of 123,000 adult men and women in eight studies between 1980s and 2000s (seven across Europe, United States and United Arab Emirates; one included only U.S. patients) All were at least 60 with no previous hip fractures. Studies lasted 13 years. 4,300 hip fractures and 28,000 deaths occurred. Association of hip fracture and death was stronger in men. Risk of death tapered off at 70. People with chronic disease at time of hip fracture faced highest overall death risk.
The CDC notes, in the US, an estimated 300,000 people 65 and older are hospitalized for hip fractures yearly. Katsoulis said prevention is key, “For example, people should avoid smoking and high alcohol consumption, be physically active and follow a varied diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, as well as fruits and vegetables. It is also important to provide better health care services to those older individuals that have already experienced a fracture, to give them the opportunity to walk again as soon as possible so that we can provide them better quality of life and survival,”
Dr, Robert Recker, president of National Osteoporosis Foundation, said the findings were not surprising. He cited the “sadly neglected disease” of osteoporosis as the principal cause. He noted only 23 percent of discharged hip fracture patients are diagnosed and treated for osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is the most common underlying cause of hip fracture, according to Recker. The risk of having another break is 2.5 to five times greater following the initial fracture, added Recker, who is also director of the Osteoporosis Research Center at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.
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