LETTER
A Protocol for the Management of the Inpatient Fracture Neck of Femur is Required
Carl Malcolm Green1, *, Nikhil Shah2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2018Volume: 12
First Page: 358
Last Page: 363
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-12-358
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001812010358
Article History:
Received Date: 24/4/2018Revision Received Date: 30/7/2018
Acceptance Date: 7/8/2018
Electronic publication date: 31/08/2018
Collection year: 2018
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.
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.