Complications higher with regional anesthesia for hip fractures

Editor's Note

In this study, patients having hip fracture surgery under regional anesthesia had significantly more complications than patients who received general anesthesia.

Spinal anesthesia had the highest complication rate (19.6%), followed by general anesthesia (17.9%), and regional nerve blocks (12.6%).

After combining regional nerve block and spinal anesthesia patients, multivariate analysis showed significantly greater odds for minor and total complications for regional versus general anesthesia. There were no significant differences in major complications among the three groups.

LAS VEGAS— Patients administered regional anesthesia for hip fracture surgery are significantly more likely to experience complications than those who received general anesthesia, a study has found. The 7,764-patient review of information from the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical ...