In a study evaluating the clinical effect of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) on elderly patients treated with hemiarthroplasty (HA) for femoral neck fracture, it ERAS was found to offer improvement in hip function. Along with a reduction in hospital stay ERAS also reduced medical costs for the patients.

The study included 92 elderly patients; 31 males and 61 females (average age 75±6 years) with a femoral neck fracture who were treated with hemiarthroplasty from July 2018 to December 2018 in Beijing Jishuitan Hospital. The 78.3% (72 patients) study population was complicated with comorbidity. The patients were divided into two groups namely the observational group and control group. The control group included 45 patients with normal management and the observational group included 47 patients given ERAS.

The outcomes related to the complication, hospitalization, operation, and nursing satisfaction were analyzed and compared among both groups. The perioperative pain was evaluated through VAS and clinical outcomes were evaluated through EQ-5D index scores and Harris scores for hip joint. The patients were periodically followed-up for 3 months. The normal distribution and homogeneity of variance of data were compared by t-test.

No patient died during the perioperative period; the observational group has better outcomes in terms of operation rate in 48 hours, medical costs and bed days as compared to the control group. The percentage of The incidence of complication, nursing satisfaction and t-value for quality of life are presented in the table below. 

As compared to the control group the VAS score was found to be lower in the observational group, whereas after 1 month Harris scores were higher in the observational group.

It was found that ERAS could help to benefit patients in all terms. It could be considered for elderly patients treated with HA.