Abstract
Echocardiography is commonly used in hip fracture patients to evaluate perioperative cardiac risk and identify cardiac abnormalities. However, echocardiography that delays surgical repair may be harmful. The objective of this study was to compare mortality, surgical wait times, length of stay (LOS), and health care costs for similar hip fracture patients managed with and without preoperative echocardiograms.
A population based, retrospective cohort study of all hip fracture patients (>age 45) in Ontario, Canada was conducted. The primary exposure was pre-operative echocardiography (between hospital admission and surgery). Patients receiving preoperative echocardiograms were matched to those without using a propensity score incorporating patient demographic information, comorbidity status, and provider information. Mortality rates, surgical wait times, post-operative length of stay (LOS), and medical costs (expressed as 2013$ CAN) up to 1-year post-operatively were assessed after matching.
There were 2354 (∼5.6%) of 42,230 eligible hip fracture patients that received a preoperative echocardiogram during the study period. After successfully matching 2298 (∼97.6%) patients, echocardiography was associated with significant increases in mortality at 90 days (20.1% vs. 16.8%, p=0.004) and 1 year (32.9% vs. 27.8%, p < 0 .001), but not 30-days (11.4% vs. 9.8%, p=0.084). Patients with echocardiography also had an increased (mean ± SD) delay (in hours) from presentation to surgery (68.80 ± 44.23 hours vs. 39.69 ± 27.09 hours, p < 0 .001) and only 38.1% of patients had surgery within 48 hours. Total LOS (in days) (mean 19.49 ± 25.39 days vs. 15.94 ± 22.48 days, p < 0 .001) and total healthcare costs at 1 year (mean: $51,714.69 ± 54,675.28 vs. $41,861.47 ± 50,854.12, p < 0 .001) were also increased. There was wide variability in echocardiography ordering practice in Ontario, with a range of 0% to 22.97% of hip fracture patients undergoing preoperative echocardiography at different hospital sites.
Preoperative echocardiography for hip fracture patients is associated with increased postoperative mortality. It is also associated with increased surgical delay, post-operative LOS, and total health care costs at 1 year. Echocardiography should be considered an urgent test when ordered to prevent additional surgical delay, and further research is necessary to clarify indications for this common preoperative investigation.
