Novel Anticoagulants and Hip Fractures in the Elderly

Introduction Early surgery is recommended in hip fractures to reduce morbidity and mortality. Surgery is often delayed in patients on novel direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs). The purpose of our study was to investigate the impact of DOACs on patients with hip fractures. Methods A retrospective comparative analysis was performed. A total of 766 patients presented with neck of femur fractures in the study period. Patients under the age of 60, those managed conservatively and those on alternative anticoagulation (including warfarin, clopidogrel and aspirin) were excluded. Forty-seven (6.1%) patients were on DOACs, to which a group of 47 patients was matched for age, gender, fracture type and intervention to minimise confounding. Primary outcome data on time to surgery (TTS), pre-/postoperative haemoglobin, haemoglobin drop, length of stay (LOS) and 30-day mortality were collected, as well as secondary outcome data on blood transfusion and wound complications. The Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) was calculated for all patients. Results The mean Charlson Comorbidity Index was significantly increased in the DOAC group (p<0.0001). The mean time to surgery was 49.5 hours in the DOAC group versus 31.3 hours in the control group (p=0.0002). Haemoglobin drop for DOAC patients was 16.9 g/L and 15.9 g/L for control patients (p=0.6). Similarly, no significant increase in transfusion was required (p=0.74). Six DOAC patients and two control group patients died within 30 days of surgery (p=0.13). Wound complications were seen in five (10.6%) patients on DOAC and two (4.2%) patients in the control group (p=0.02). Conclusion The results demonstrate statistically significantly higher comorbidities, delay in surgery and higher wound complications in patients on DOAC but no significant difference in haemoglobin drop, blood transfusion and mortality.