Risk of post-operative cardiovascular event in elderly patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease who are undergoing hip fracture surgery

PURPOSE: To evaluate the association between pre-existing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the risk of developing post-operative cardiovascular event among elderly patients who underwent hip fracture surgery. METHODS: We performed an observational study among patients with acute hip fracture aged at least 65 years and who received surgical intervention. Hip fracture patients with pre-existing CVD were matched for age, gender, fracture type, and year of admission with patients without pre-existing CVD. The primary endpoint was post-operative cardiovascular events, and patients were followed until discharge from hospital. Conditional logistic regression was used to determine the association between pre-existing CVD and post-operative cardiovascular event after adjusting for potential confounders including age, body mass index, time from fracture to surgery, pre-existing comorbidities, and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). RESULTS: The study matched 858 pairs of patients with and without pre-existing CVD. Post-operative cardiovascular events developed in 40 and 14 patients with and without pre-existing CVD (44.6 versus 16.3 per 1000 persons), respectively. Compared to patients without pre-existing CVD, patients with any pre-existing CVD were more likely to develop post-operative cardiovascular events, with a crude odds ratio (OR) of 2.857 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.554 to 5.251] and multivariable adjusted OR of 2.850 (95% CI, 1.318 to 7.139), respectively. CONCLUSION: In elderly patients who received hip fracture surgery, patients with pre-existing CVD are at a higher risk of developing post-operative cardiovascular events. Appropriate screening for this vulnerable population is recommended to prevent the risk of post-operative complications. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00264-021-05227-7.