International Journal of Research in Orthopaedics | March-April 2021 | Vol 7 | Issue 2 Page 248
International Journal of Research in Orthopaedics
Singh SK et al. Int J Res Orthop. 2021 Mar;7(2):248-251
http://www.ijoro.org
Original Research Article
Study of the peri-operative mortality in trochanteric fractures in elderly
patients (60 years and above) visiting department of orthopedics
at Dr. RPGMC Tanda
Sarvesh Kumar Singh, Bhanu Awasthi, Devinder Kumar, Sunil Rana, Atul Singh, Sunny Dua*
INTRODUCTION
Trochanteric fractures are one of the commonest fractures
seen in elderly people.
1,2
With the increase in life
expectancy, these fractures are more common in our
practice today.
3
These elderly people have many
associated co-morbid conditions like hypertension, poor
cardio-pulmonary reserve and the quality of life of these
patients will be poor until they are mobilizing elderly.
However, with the increase in motor vehicle accidents or
occupations like climbing on trees or hillocks in the rural
set up, trochanteric fractures are also being seen with
increased frequency in younger where these injuries are
following a high velocity trauma resulting in unstable
fracture pattern, these younger group of patients also
require stabilization of these fractures, so that, they can be
mobilized early to avoid the complications associated with
prolonged recumbency like deep vein thrombosis (DVT),
pulmonary oedema etc.
Quality of life becomes poor unless stabilized and
mobilized early and hence many fixation devices were
developed. With the aim of mobilizing these patients early
ABSTRACT
Background: Trochanteric fractures are one of the commonest fractures seen in elderly people. We conducted a study
association between socio-demographic profile and difficulties encountered during fixation of trochanteric fractures
with proximal femoral nailing (PFN) operated in the department of orthopedics at Dr RPGMC Kangra at Tanda.
Methods: This study was conducted on patients presenting to the department of orthopedics at Dr RPGMC Tanda with
trochanteric fractures and fulfilling the criteria and studied for a period of one year starting from the date of study. The
patients were clinically evaluated at the time of admission. Demographic data of the patients such as age, sex, pre-
operative mobility status, pre-existing co-morbidities, type of fracture/fracture classification, degree of osteoporosis
(measured by Singh’s index) were noted.
Results: Comparison of age of the patients in which difficulties encountered was comparable to the patients in which
no difficulties encountered (p=0.562) 57% (n=33/58) of the patients in which no difficulties encountered were males.
Sex-based distribution was not found to be statistically significant (p=0.480). 93% (n=54/58) of the patients in which
no difficulties encountered belonged to rural areas. Residence-based distribution was not found to be statistically
significant (p=0.506).
Conclusions: In this study, we observed that technical difficulty in PFN can arise in any patient irrespective of their
age, sex and socioeconomic status.
Keywords: Age, Sex, PFN, Difficulty
Department of Orthopedics, Dr. RPGMC, Kangra, Tanda, Himachal Pradesh, India
Received: 27 January 2021
Revised: 09 February 2021
Accepted: 16 February 2021
*Correspondence:
Dr. Sunny Dua,
E-mail: sunydua64@gmail.com
Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/issn.2455-4510.IntJResOrthop20210539