A systematic review and meta-analysis of anesthesia type on hip fracture post-surgery outcomes

Objective: To compare technical, clinical, and safety outcomes among hip fracture patients treated with procedures supplemented by general anesthesia (GA) or spinal/regional anesthesia (S/R).

Data sources: We searched for original studies on PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, and Cochrane databases.

Study selection: Studies that reported clinical outcomes in patients that underwent hip fracture surgery, had available data on type of anesthesia administered, and clinical follow-up data were selected for data extraction.

Data extraction: The primary outcomes of interest were odds of mortality, including in-hospital, 30-day, 90-day, and 1-year mortality. Various adverse events (AEs) were also compared.

Data synthesis: Twenty-eight studies met our selection criteria, including 190,394 patients. A total of 107,314 (56.4%) patients were treated with procedures involving GA while 83,080 (43.6%) were treated with procedures involving S/R. There was no difference in 30-day or >1-year mortality rates between the GA and SR groups; however, compared to S/R group, the GA group had a significantly higher odds of in-hospital (P = .004) and 90-day mortality (P = .004). There was no difference in odds of adverse events between the GA and the S/R group.

Conclusions: Patients administered S/R for hip fracture procedures demonstrate lower risk of in-hospital mortality and 90-day mortality compared to patients administered GA.

Level of evidence: Therapeutic level III.