Correlation of serum PTH level and fracture healing speed in elderly patients with hip fracture.

PURPOSE: To access serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) level in elderly patients with hip fracture in relation to fracture healing outcomes. METHODS: This study included 90 elderly male patients with hip fracture and they were defined as the hip fracture group, and they were divided into healing effective group and delayed healing group by final fracture healing outcomes, 45 cases in each group; another 45 male patients older than 70 years without established osteoporosis and hip fracture were included as the control group. The levels of serum PTH level were examined in each group. RESULTS: Serum PTH level was significantly higher in healing effective group patients at the 7 days and 14 days after fracture than the delayed healing patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that serum PTH level may be an effective indicator of hip fracture delayed healing risk in the elderly.