Japanese Herbal Kampo Hochu-Ekki-To or Juzen-Taiho-To after Surgery for Hip Fracture Does Not Reduce Infectious Complications.

Background: Infectious complications after hip fracture surgery are common in the elderly. Although experimental studies have suggested that kampo medicine, Hochu-ekki-to and Juzen-taiho-to, can prevent infectious complications, only a few small clinical studies have been published to date.

Primary Study Objective: The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of Hochu-ekki-to or Juzen-taiho-to on postoperative infectious complications in patients undergoing surgery for hip fracture.

Methods And Design: In this retrospective cohort study using a nationwide inpatient database in Japan, we performed propensity score matching to compare patients who did or did not receive kampo medicine after surgery for hip fracture.

Settings: A nationwide inpatient database.

Participants: Patients who did or did not receive kampo medicine after surgery for hip fracture.

Intervention: Kampo medicine after surgery for hip fracture.

Primary Outcome Measures: Infectious complications.

Results: The proportions of postoperative infectious complications were not significantly different between the 424 propensity-matched pairs with and without kampo medicine (11 versus 8, = 0.644).

Conclusion: The present study suggests that Hochu-ekki-to or Juzen-taiho-to postoperatively is not associated with decreased occurrence of infectious complications in patients who underwent surgery for hip fracture.