The burden of second hip fractures: provincial surgical hospitalizations over 15 years

BACKGROUND: Second hip fractures account for up to 15% of all hip fractures. We sought to determine if the proportion of hip fracture surgeries for second hip fracture changed over time in terms of patient and fracture characteristics.

METHODS: We reviewed the records of patients older than 60 years hospitalized for hip fracture surgery between 1990 and 2005 in British Columbia. We studied the proportion of surgeries for second hip fracture among all hip fracture surgeries. Linear regression tested for trends across fiscal years for women and men.

RESULTS: We obtained 46 341 patient records. Second hip fracture accounted for 8.3% of hip fracture surgeries. For women the proportion of second hip fracture surgeries increased linearly from 4% to 13% with each age decade (p = 0.001) and across fiscal years (p = 0.002). In men the proportion of second hip fracture surgeries was 5% for each age decade between the ages of 60 and 90 years across fiscal years, increasing to 8% for men older than 90 years across fiscal years (p = 0.20). These sex-specific trends were similar for both pertrochanteric and transcervical fracture types.

CONCLUSION: Second hip fracture surgeries account for an increasing proportion of hip fracture surgeries and may require more health care resources to minimize poorer reported outcomes. Future research should determine whether more health care resources are required to manage these patients and optimize their outcomes.