Assessment of quality of life of patients after hemiarthroplasty for proximal femoral fractures

Objectives: The quality of life of patients was assessed with the SF-36 Health Survey following hemiarthroplasty for hip fractures. Methods : Forty patients were divided into two groups according to the type of hip fracture. Group 1 included femoral neck fractures (24 patients; 21 women, 3 men; mean age 76 years; range 64 to 94 years) treated with straight stem prostheses. Group 2 included intertrochanteric femoral frac¬tures (16 patients; 13 women, 3 men; mean age 81 years; range 62 to 102 years) treated with calcar replacement pros¬theses (Leinbach). The SF-36 questionnaire was administered before and at least six months after surgery to assess changes in the quality of life. The effect of gender, fracture type, and the type of prosthesis on the SF-36 scores were examined. Results : In group 1, the mean preoperative and postopera¬tive physical health scores were 53.4 and 41.7, the mean mental health scores were 55.2 and 48.5, respectively. The mean corresponding scores were 52.8 and 35.1 for physical health, and 55.2 and 48.9 for mental health in group 2, respectiv ely. Significant decreases were found in physical health and mental health scores postoperatively (p<0.05), with all the patients having decreased quality of life com¬pared to the preoperative levels. The highest decrease was observed in physical role (56.8%), followed by physical function (42.8%) and mental role (42.9%) scores. The least affected were mental health (10.3%) scores. Gender, frac¬ture type, and the type of prosthesis were not found to have a significant effect on the summary scores (p>0.05). Conc lu s ion : Health related quality of life significantly decreases following hemiarthroplasty in elderly patients with hip fractures. Nonetheless, arthroplasty procedures enable these patients to maintain basic activities of daily living.