Life expectancy and functional prognosis after femoral neck fractures in hemodialysis patients

OBJECTIVES: To identify whether differences exist in the outcomes between patients undergoing hemodialysis and elderly nonhemodialysis patients with a femoral neck fracture. DESIGN: Retrospective review. SETTING: Level 1 trauma center. PATIENTS/INTERVENTIONS: A total of 71 femoral neck fractures in 62 patients undergoing hemodialysis treated nonoperatively or operatively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Clinical outcomes were analyzed to identify factors that may be correlated with life expectancy and functional prognosis. RESULTS: The overall survival rates in this study at 1-year and 5-years postfracture were found to be 89.8% and 51.5%, respectively. There were significant correlations among the survival rate, patients' age, type of treatment, prefracture ambulation status, and prefracture activities of daily living status. However, using multivariate analysis, the only significant predictor of life expectancy was prefracture ambulation status. As for functional prognosis, the rates of total ambulation recovery and total activities of daily living recovery at 1-year postfracture were 50.0% and 71.2%, respectively. Both patients' age and age at the onset of hemodialysis may contribute considerably to functional prognosis in patients undergoing hemodialysis after femoral neck fracture. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that the clinical outcomes of patients with femoral neck fractures who undergo hemodialysis are considerably superior to those of previous studies. In addition, when those fractures are treated surgically with specific management in patients undergoing hemodialysis, it may be possible to expect a life expectancy and functional prognosis similar to elderly nonhemodialysis patients with hip fractures.