Abstract
Mortality after hip fractures in the elderly is one of the most important patient
outcome measures. Subclinical thyroid dysfunction is common in the elderly population.
This is a prospective study of 131 elderly patients with a mean (SD) age of 82.0 (8.9)
years (range: 61–94) admitted consecutively to our trauma unit. The aim of the study
was to determine the prevalence of subclinical thyroid dysfunction in an elderly cohort
of patients with hip fracture and to determine if this affects the one-year mortality.
There were three times more women (n = 100) than men (n = 31) in this cohort. All patients underwent surgical treatment for the hip fracture.
The prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH > 5.5 mU/L) was 15% (n = 20) and of subclinical hyperthyroidism (TSH < 0.35 mU/L) was 3% (n = 4). Overall 18% (n = 24) of patients had a subclinical thyroid dysfunction. The twelve-month mortality
was 27% (n = 36).
Age, gender, heart rate at admission, pre-existing coronary heart disease, ASA grade
and presence of overt or subclinical thyroid dysfunction were analysed for association
with twelve-month mortality using a forward stepwise logistic regression analysis.
Only ASA grade was found to significantly affect mortality at twelve months (χ2 = 3.98, df = 1, p = 0.046). Independently the presence of subclinical hypo- or hyperthyroidism was not
associated with a higher mortality (p = 0.477). We conclude that subclinical thyroid dysfunction does not affect the one-year
mortality in elderly patients treated surgically for hip fracture.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
October 5,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
