Hip Fracture: Risks and Treatments

Hip fracture problems or fragility fractures are typically caused by osteoporosis disease among elderly people in Malaysia, which is increasingly common and may happen to anyone.

If it is left untreated, this health issue is not only limiting mobility, instead, it is causing the affected individuals to feel prolonged pain and need to be in a recumbent position for a long period.

Pantai Hospital Ayer Keroh Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery Consultant, Dr. Mohd Rusdi Draman@Yusof said that other effects due to this issue are localized inflammation, blood vessels, nerves, and tissue disorders in patients' bodies, further causing severe acute pain.

"This issue is usually due to the aging factor of the patient. The frequency of elderly people having this disease is increasing, there will be situations like this in any hospital, involving elderly people.

"One of the effective methods to treat this issue is through a partial hip surgery to ensure the patient can walk normally," he said during a recent interview with Melaka Hari Ini (MHI) at Pantai Hospital Ayer Keroh.

Risks Faced By Elderly People Due To Hip Fracture

According to Dr. Mohd Rusdi, the issue cannot be left untreated because patients are exposed to multiple risks or complications such as blood clots on the legs which is Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and if it is left untreated, it can cause pulmonary embolism (PE) which may cause sudden death.

"Secondly, when one is in a recumbent position for a long period, the patient is at risk of 'bedsores' such as wounds at the back or any parts that get pressured, it can spread to the bones and even more critical when bacterial infection happens until it becomes rotten and pus-filled.

"Due to the frequent lying down position, the patient's lungs also cannot expand fully and therefore are at risk of bacterial infection in the lungs, which can also cause fatality.

"Fourth, urinary tract infection will happen because when the patient is always lying down, it's harder to urinate and this will cause him/her to get urinary tract infection," he said.

Treatment Goals for Hip Fracture in Elderly People

Dr. Mohd Rusdi said that the surgery can help patients walk normally for a short period after completing their treatments.

"We want to change the patients' condition from being in a recumbent position by helping them walk normally as soon as possible. The treatment goal is to help patients get up from their beds and back to walking painlessly.

"To achieve this goal, there is no other way other than the surgery method. A fractured hip needs to be corrected so that the patients may walk, if they are old, we usually will perform a partial hip replacement surgery to replace the fractured area.

"Before performing a surgery, we will run a diagnosis first, and after confirming that the patient's hip is fractured, he/she needs to be hospitalized overnight for pain relief treatment," he said.

Safety of Patients Are Ensured Pre-treatment

He added that detailed examinations will be done to ensure that the patient's fractured hip is not due to health issues or other diseases.

"Usually, treatment will begin by giving a 'skin traction' painkiller to the patients, and then we will perform an examination from head to toe to inspect if they have other health concerns or not.

"Sometimes, these patients fell and had their hips fractured due to a stroke attack, low sugar reading, heart disease, and many others.

"If there are other causes that we need to investigate in detail, we will do a thorough health check-up because elderly people have multiple issues that can lead to hip fractures.

"If the patient is healthy before this, then we can perform surgery immediately and most of the treated patients can walk again in a day post-surgery," he said.

For more info about Dr. Mohd Rusdi, click here.