There is no weekend effect in hip fracture surgery – A comprehensive analysis of outcomes

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies have shown that some patient groups suffer adverse outcomes if they are acutely admitted to hospital over a weekend. We aimed to investigate this ‘weekend effect’ at our centre in patients presenting with a hip fracture. MethodsConsecutive patients undergoing acute hip fracture surgery were identified from a prospective database. Patient demographics, co-morbidities, fracture type, admission blood parameters were examined. Outcomes analysed included 30-day, 90-day and 1-year mortality as well as length of stay, re-operations and delay to surgery. The data were analysed with regards to day of admission and day of surgery separately. ResultsA total of 1326 patients were included, of which 368 patients were admitted over a weekend and 411 patients had their operation over a weekend. Overall 30-day mortality was 7.6% (101 patients), whilst the 90-day and 1-year mortalities were 15.3% and 26.8% (203 and 356 patients). There were no significant differences in any of the outcomes based on the day of admission or the day of surgery. Multivariate analysis for 30-day mortality demonstrated the following variables to be significant predictors: admission urea levels (hazard ratio (HR) 1.042, p = 0.027), age (HR 1.058, p < 0.001), admission source (HR 1.428, p < 0.001), surgical delay >48 h (HR 1.853, p = 0.004), male gender (HR 1.967, p = 0.003), previous stroke (HR 2.261, p = 0.038), acute chest infection (4.240, p < 0.001) and chronic liver disease (HR 4.581, p = 0.014). ConclusionThis data suggests that there is no significant weekend effect in hip fracture surgery and mortality is affected by patient co-morbidities and delay to surgery.