BACKGROUND:Studies have shown that malnutrition was associated with death of elder people after fracture of hip, but there were no above-mentioned reports in China.
OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively analyze the relationship of blood albumin, total lymphocyte count and hemoglobin levels to prognosis when elder patients with fracture of hip were on admission.
METHODS:130 elderly patients with hip fractures aged ≥ 70 years were included underwent either total hip arthroplasty or bipolar arthroplasty. Admission serum albumin, total lymphocytecount and hemoglobin levels were recorded. The patients were fol owed up for 1 year or til the death. Survival data were available in 92 patients. Rates of survival were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the Log-Rank test. Cox proportional hazard regression model received prognostic multivariate analysis.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Of the 92 patients, albumin<35 g/L in 20 cases (22%), total lymphocyte count<1.5×106/L in 67 cases (73%), and hemoglobin<120 g/L in 56 cases (61%). Kaplan-Meier method showed that the survival rate of patients with normal albumin (≥ 35 g/L) was significantly higher than those with reduced albumin (<35 g/L) (P<0.01). No significant difference was detected in the survival rate of patients with normal total lymphocyte count (≥ 1.5×106/L) and reduced total lymphocyte count (<1.5×106/L) (P>0.05). The survival rate of patients with normal hemoglobin (≥ 120 g/L) was significantly higher than those with decreased hemoglobin (<120 g/L) (P <0.05). Cox multivariate analysis displayed that albumin decrease is an independent prognostic factor for death of patients with hip fracture. Results indicated that the prognosis of elder patients with hip fracture was strongly associated with their nutritional conditions. Albumin and hemoglobin levels at admission can be considered as important indexes for judging patient’s prognosis.