Integrated hip-fracture model cuts mortality rates
Tianjin center targets operating on patients within 48-hour 'golden window'
Elderly hip fractures are often low-trauma injuries that occur in women over 55 years old or men over 60 years old, and are often associated with osteoporosis.
Xu said that the average age of elderly patients with hip fractures is 75.4 years old, and most of them have complications from a variety of basic diseases. Respiratory dysfunction, diabetes and high blood pressure are common.
Previously, orthopedic surgeons had to wait for individual clearances from cardiology, respiratory and endocrinology departments — a process that often took days.
Cheng Jing, a doctor of the Orthopedics department at Tianjin Hospital, said that under the new system, specialists work as a single unit to stabilize patients simultaneously. This coordination allowed an 80-year-old patient with severe heart and lung dysfunction, previously deemed "inoperable" by local hospitals in neighboring Hebei province, to be successfully treated and operated on within two weeks.
