Considerations on the time of surgery of femoral fractures

Abstract

As shown by a study elaborated in 1980 by the A.O. (Working Association for Osteosynthesis) which was based on the data of 1127 patients, the number of general complications occuring during the primary treatment of fractures of the femur had increased by 13%. However, this study also comprised a great number of polytraumatically injured persons possessing other indications for surgery than patients with monosseous fractures of the femur shaft. So all monosseous fractures of the shaft were compiled with the aid of the A.O. computer in Bern, and 1257 cases were received. It is clearly demonstrated by evaluating these cases that a primary treatment of fractures of the femur has a significantly better effect than a delayed treatment. The number of cardiac complications increases with the time interval passing between injury and treatment. The same effect was not statistically proved for pulmonary complications; on the contrary some pulmonary complications occured during primary treatment in young patients, i.e. in a group of patients where this is expected least of all. For the future, the circulatory parameters of these patients must be estimated with special accuracy. Fatalities only occurred in the group of the oldest patients; the number of deaths increased significantly with the time interval after the injury. The differences between the present study and the preceding. A.O. study of 1980 are explained by the relatively great number of polytraumatically injured persons with fractures of the femur included in the first study. However, no satisfactory explanation does exist for the deaths occurred in 1972 at our own hospital, mentioned at the beginning of this report.