Fracture-related hip pain in elderly patients with proximal femoral fracture after discharge from stationary treatment

Abstract

Background Proximal femoral fracture is a common condition in the elderly but very little is known about fracture-related hip pain in these patients after discharge from stationary treatment. Aims To identify risk factors associated with persistent hip pain in elderly hip-fracture patients. Methods We analysed data from a large observational study, evaluating the health care situation of hip-fracture patients between January 2002 and September 2003 in Germany. For this analysis, we focused on a sub-sample of patients who were 65 years or older, had sustained an isolated proximal femoral fracture and had undergone surgical intervention. A telephone interview was conducted 6–12 months after discharge. Pain intensity, pain-related disability and severity of chronic pain were measured using the Graded Chronic Pain Scale (GCPS). Multivariate linear regression methods were applied to test hospital patient data for their value in predicting post-hospitalisation presence of fracture-related pain. Results In total, 1541 patients (mean age 78.4, 76.1% female) were enrolled in this analysis. The prevalence of fracture-related hip pain was 13.4% (206/1541). Among these 206 patients, 57.3% had pain intensity scores ⩾50, 65.0% had pain disability scores ⩾50, and the severity of chronic pain (Grades 1–4) was assessed as follows: (1) 34.0%, (2) 19.4%, (3) 31.5%, (4) 15.1%. The clinical variables age, weight and operative procedure were found to be predictive of post-hospitalisation fracture-related pain. Conclusions This analysis shows that a substantial percentage of elderly patients with proximal femoral fracture suffer intense fracture-related hip pain after stationary treatment.