Outcomes, risk factors, and conversion rate in acetabular fractures in patients over 65 years of age. Analysis at a mean follow-up of 6 years.

Introduction: Acetabular fractures are devastating injuries that can affect patients of different ages, as well as being associated with high or low energy trauma. Conversion to total hip arthroplasty (THA) results in increased complication rates, resource use and costs compared to primary THA due to osteoarthritis. The aim of this paper is to describe a retrospective cohort of patients over 65 years of age who presented with an acetabular fracture and were treated with open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF).

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted from January 2002 to December 2017. The study identified all patients over 65 years of age who suffered an acetabular fracture and were treated primarily with ORIF. The quality of reduction, fracture pattern and associated poor prognostic factors for fracture were analyzed.

Results: A total of 50 cases of acetabular fractures in patients over 65 years of age were included. Six of them required conversion to THA (12%). In 3 of these cases conversion surgery was performed because of pre-existing osteoarthritis, pain, and postoperative progression of osteoarthritis. The main factors involved in the conversion cases were intra-articular fragments, femoral head protrusion and posterior wall comminution. Postoperative intra-articular gap had a p = 0.01 in linear regression analysis for conversion to arthroplasty.

Conclusion: The conversion rate reported in our cohort of elderly patients is similar to that reported in the literature in patients of all age ranges. The quality of reduction was a significant factor in predicting progression to conversion to THA.