Risk of post-operative cardiovascular event in elderly patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease who are undergoing hip fracture surgery.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the association between pre-existing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the risk of developing post-operative cardiovascular event among elderly patients who underwent hip fracture surgery.

METHODS

We performed an observational study among patients with acute hip fracture aged at least 65 years and who received surgical intervention. Hip fracture patients with pre-existing CVD were matched for age, gender, fracture type, and year of admission with patients without pre-existing CVD. The primary endpoint was post-operative cardiovascular events, and patients were followed until discharge from hospital. Conditional logistic regression was used to determine the association between pre-existing CVD and post-operative cardiovascular event after adjusting for potential confounders including age, body mass index, time from fracture to surgery, pre-existing comorbidities, and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI).

RESULTS

The study matched 858 pairs of patients with and without pre-existing CVD. Post-operative cardiovascular events developed in 40 and 14 patients with and without pre-existing CVD (44.6 versus 16.3 per 1000 persons), respectively. Compared to patients without pre-existing CVD, patients with any pre-existing CVD were more likely to develop post-operative cardiovascular events, with a crude odds ratio (OR) of 2.857 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.554 to 5.251] and multivariable adjusted OR of 2.850 (95% CI, 1.318 to 7.139), respectively.

CONCLUSION

In elderly patients who received hip fracture surgery, patients with pre-existing CVD are at a higher risk of developing post-operative cardiovascular events. Appropriate screening for this vulnerable population is recommended to prevent the risk of post-operative complications.