Predictors of adverse outcomes in elders hospitalised for isolated orthopaedic trauma: a multicentre cohort study

Background: Patients >64 years of age now represent more than 51% of injury hospitalisations in Canada. The tools used to identify older patients who could benefit the most from an interdisciplinary approach include complex parameters difficult to collect in the ED, which suggests that better tools with higher accuracy and using items that can be derived from routinely collected data are needed. We aimed to identify variables that are associated with adverse outcomes in older patients admitted to a trauma centre for an isolated orthopaedic injury.

Methods: We conducted a multicentre retrospective cohort study between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2019 on older patients hospitalised with a primary diagnosis of isolated orthopaedic injury (n=19 928). Data were extracted from the provincial trauma registry (Registre des traumatismes du Québec). We used multilevel logistic regression to estimate the associations between potential predictors and adverse outcomes (extended length of stay, mortality, complications, unplanned readmission and adverse discharge destination).

Results: Increasing age, male sex, specific comorbidities, type of orthopaedic injuries, increasing number of comorbidities, severe orthopaedic injury, head injuries and admission in the year before the injury were all significant predictors of adverse outcomes.

Conclusion: We identified eight predictors of adverse outcomes in patients >64 years of age admitted to a trauma centre for orthopaedic injury. These variables could eventually be used to develop a clinical decision rule to identify elders who may benefit the most from interdisciplinary care.