LETTER


A Protocol for the Management of the Inpatient Fracture Neck of Femur is Required



Carl Malcolm Green1, *, Nikhil Shah2
1 Cavendish Hip Fellow, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Northern General Hospital, Herries Road, Sheffield, S5 7AU, England
2 Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Wrightington Hospital, Hall Lane, Wigan, WN6 9EP, England


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Creative Commons License
© 2018 Green and Shah.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Cavendish Hip Fellow, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Northern General Hospital, Herries Road, Sheffield, S5 7AU, England; Tel: 07939 038439; E-mail: carlgreen@nhs.net


Abstract

Falls within a hospital environment are a major cause of morbidity and may even lead to mortality. Pathways for patients suffering a Fractured Neck of Femur (FNOF) in the community are well established following the development of the Blue Book, BOAST guidelines and National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD). However, there is no such agreed pathway for patients suffering FNOF within a hospital environment. Such patients have been demonstrated to have a higher risk of delays in medical optimisation, delays in operative management, and mortality. There is, therefore, a need to create a nationally agreed guideline for the care of the “inpatient FNOF” as this is an important subgroup of patients. This article highlights this issue as well as advising medical staff on how to identify a potential FNOF within a hospital environment in order to ensure prompt management of a vulnerable group of patients.

Keywords: Inpatient, Fracture, Neck of femur, Protocol falls, Surgery, NHFD.