Introduction
We conducted a study on elderly patients with hip fracture to examine whether it is possible to predict the ambulation status
of these patients upon hospital discharge.
Material and methods
One hundred and eighty six patients with femoral neck or trochanteric fracture, who were ambulant prior to fracture, were
studied. Thirteen factors that may affect walking ability were selected and subjected to multivariate analysis.
Results
Of 186 patients, 145 regained walking ability at discharge. Factors significantly affecting walking ability at discharge were
(1) anemia, (2) dementia and (3) abnormal chest X-ray. Each patient was scored on the basis of the above factors (1 = yes,
0 = no), and the total was used as the predictive score.
Conclusion
A simple scoring system of the ambulation status upon hospital discharge.
Keywords Hip fracture - Prognosis - Walking ability - Elderly
An erratum to this article can be found at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00402-007-0376-x