Proximal femoral fractures in elderly people: time to surgery. The experience of Milan's "ASST Pini/CTO".

Proximal femoral fractures in elderly patients represent a rapidly increasing socio-economic problem. The functional recovery and the mortality rate are influenced by a substantial quantity of variables, including the waiting time for surgical treatment ("time to surgery"). This study aims at investigating the average waiting time, and ascertaining the causes and effects, together with other non-modifiable variables, on the outcome for patients admitted to Milan's Istituto Ortopedico Gaetano Pini (Gaetano Pini Orthopaedic Institute) with a proximal femoral fracture.

Long-term use of statins reduces the risk of hospitalization for dementia.

Background: Dementia is a major public health problem because of its high prevalence in elderly individuals, particularly in the growing category of subjects aged 80 years or more. There is accumulating evidence that cholesterol may be implicated in the pathogenesis of dementia, and this has led us to assess the relationship between time spent with statins available and the risk of hospitalization for dementia.

Methods: A population-based, nested case-control study was carried out by including the cohort of 152,729 patients from Lombardy (Italy) aged 40 years or older who were newly treated with statins between 2003 and 2004.