Patrón de conducta ante pacientes con fracturas de cadera cuya cirugía ha sido diferida

introduction. most of patients with hip fractures requiring surgical treatment and in the case of elderly persons, it must to be urgent to avoid the complications caused by a lengthy bed staying but sometimes it is necessary its postponement due to specific comorbid entities or a precarious health status. for these cases a treatment protocol was designed aimed to decrease the mortality and morbidity and to achieve the better possible conditions to operate on. the objective of present research was to demonstrate the effectiveness of such protocol and to establish the validity of the proposed pattern. methods. a observational, descriptive, retrospective study was conducted in the orthopedics service of the "comandante pinares" teaching and general hospital in pinar del río province from january 1, 2000 to december 31, 2004 to compare some of its results with those obtained during the five-year period (1991-1995). sample (similar to universe) included 176 patients operated on due to hip fractures with more than a year of evolution. variable's analysis was performed using the percentage method and results were expressed in frequency and eventuality tables. results. maximal age was of 94 years and the minimal one was of 56 years. there was a female predominance for a 5:1 ratio and there were 8 white patients by each of the other racial denominations as well as the trochanteric fractures. the complications present were in the rank of the informed rank of hat informed in the medical literature and the immediate mortality was of 5,1%. conclusions. the suggested behavior pattern had positive results in more than 20 years of use. the greater time of preoperative stage had not a negative influence in final results and the mortality rate has slightly decreased.