Optimale tijdsduur tot operatie bij een heupfractuur

There is an ongoing discussion about optimal timing of hip fracture surgery and much has been published about this subject.

There is no literature-based consensus regarding the timeframe in which a hip fracture patient should be operated on; nonetheless, the National Health Care Institute in the Netherlands has been using ‘time to operation’ as a quality indicator since 2017.

Analysis of the data from the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate on the quality indicator ‘Percentage of patients operated on within one calendar day’ showed that in Dutch hospitals 93% of the ASA grade 1-2 patients and 86% of the ASA grade > 2 patients were operated on within one calendar day.

Delay of surgery due to preoperative optimisation of the patient is not associated with an increased mortality.

The chance of complications, such as pneumonia or pressure sores, does increase with delay.

Conflict of interest and financial support: none declared.