Patients older than 75 years who need surgery to repair a hip fracture have a critically higher incidence of congestive heart failure and a significantly worse outcome than their counterparts without hip fractures, researchers reported here at Hospital Medicine 2010: Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) Annual Meeting.

Warning signs such as arrhythmia should be monitored closely by hospitalists and other healthcare providers to prevent poor patient outcomes, Michael Cullen, MD, chief medical resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, advised meeting attendees…

"Elderly patients who have a hip fracture have a much higher risk for postoperative heart failure than younger patients," Dr. Cullen told Medscape Internal Medicine during an interview at the meeting.

Medscape Today, by Terry Hartnett, 4/12/2010

Tags: Cardiology, D. Michael Cullen, heart failure, hip fractures, Orthopedics