Predicting the success of rehabilitation following hip fractures.

Purpose: To review what predictors are of positive or negative value in the rehabilitation procedure following hip fractures.

Method: Reviewing a doctorial thesis on prognosis and rehabilitation of elderly with a hip fracture from 1980 and then review the literature on this subject for the following quarter of a century.

Results: In the Western world the short-term prognosis for early return home after sustaining a hip fracture depends on the success of the operation allowing independent walking and basic activities of daily life, no debilitating disease and having someone at home. The one-year prognosis for having returned and remained at home requires a reasonable good health irrespective of living alone and a somewhat deteriorated hip function.

Conclusions: It is difficult to make comparisons with studies of other populations and other time periods. Different predictors of the rehabilitation are used and the definitions of these are not always the same. They are of varying weight, can change with time and may be interdependent of each other. For example, general medical condition and age are strongly interrelated predictors but age alone is less important than concomitant disease for the success of the rehabilitation. Nevertheless, already on admission of a patient with a fresh hip fracture a reliable prognosis can be done. However, such a prediction must be guided by ethical, social and scientific concerns.