Hip fracture patients often display an acute confusional state (delirium) which is associated with worse outcomes. In this observational study, we found that co-management of hip fracture patients by a multidisciplinary team including a geriatrician and an orthopaedic surgeon could reduce the incidence of delirium.

Delirium after hip fracture is common and is associated with negative outcomes. We investigated if orthogeriatric co-management reduced the incidence of delirium in hip fracture patients.

In this single-centre, prospective observational study, we compared the incidence of delirium and subsyndromal delirium (SSD) before (usual care group, n = 94) and after (orthogeriatric group, n = 103) the introduction of orthogeriatric co-management as an integrated care model. The outcome measure ‘no delirium/SSD/delirium’ was treated as an ordinal variable and analysed using the chi-squared test and multivariable ordinal logistic regression.

The groups had similar baseline characteristics except for a higher proportion of patients with pre-existing cognitive impairment in the usual care group (51% vs. 37%, p = 0.045). Fewer patients in the orthogeriatric group developed SSD or delirium (no delirium: 59% vs. 40%/SSD: 6% vs. 13%/delirium: 35% vs. 47%; p = 0.021). The number needed to treat (NNT) to avoid one case of SSD or delirium was 5.3 (95% CI: 3.1 to 19.7). In a multivariable analysis adjusted for age, sex, ASA class, pre-existing cognitive impairment, time to surgery, type of surgery, and medical or surgical complications, the odds ratio for the development of SSD/delirium was lower in the orthogeriatric group (OR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.23–0.89, p = 0.023).

Orthogeriatric co-management as an integrated care model reduced the incidence of SSD/delirium in hip fracture patients.