Strategies to improve end-of-life decision-making and palliative care following hip fracture in frail older adults: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Although surgery is the gold standard following a hip fracture, the potential for rehabilitation and survival rates are low in frail older patients. Some patients may derive more benefit from palliative care. The objectives of this review were to identify the available strategies to improve end-of-life decision-making and palliative care for frail patients with hip fractures and to synthetise their level of support. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of the scientific and grey literature, searching seven databases and websites of associations. We included all study designs, expert opinion articles and clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). Data were synthetised according to the Approach to Patient with Limited Life Expectancy and Hip Fracture framework. The number of research items and their level of evidence were tabulated for each of the recommended strategies. RESULTS: Of the 10 591 items identified, 34 were eligible. The majority of included articles were original research studies (n = 15). Half of the articles and CPGs focused on intervention categories (55%) such as goals of care discussion and comfort care, followed by factors to consider in the end-of-life decision-making process (25%) and prognosis assessments (20%), mainly through the estimation of life expectancy. The level of evidence for these strategies remains low, given the limited number of prospective studies supporting them. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review highlighted that end-of-life care in frail older patients with a hip fracture remains understudied. The strategies identified could be prioritised for future research to improve the well-being of the target population while promoting sustainable resource management.

Palliative care is a viable option for frail elderly patients with neurocognitive disorders admitted for hip fractures.

IMPORTANCE: Most patients presenting with a hip fracture regardless of their comorbidities are surgically treated. A growing body of research states that a certain type of elderly patient could benefit more from a palliative approach. OBJECTIVE: Identify the patient who would benefit most from a palliative care approach instead of a surgery. DESIGN: Exploratory-matched retrospective cohort study between 2015 and 2021. SETTING: Single Level 1 Trauma Center. PARTICIPANTS: There were 2240 hip fracture patients admitted to our institution between 2015 and 2021. Patients over 65 years old with intertrochanteric or femoral neck fractures could be included. A total of 129 patients opted for palliative care (Palliative Group = PG). This cohort was compared to a matched cohort (for age, sex and fracture type) who underwent surgery but died within three months of the procedure (Surgery Deceased Group = SDG) and another matched cohort who survived more than three months (Surgery Alive Group = SAG) following surgery. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Medical charts were reviewed for patient demographics, autonomy level, level of care, neurocognitive disorders (NCD), fracture type, in-hospital data and outpatient death within three months of admission. Analysis was performed through univariate and multivariate models with SAS OnDemand for Academics (alpha 0.05). RESULTS: Patients in the PG (n = 129) were 88.2 ± 7.2 years old, 71.3% were females, and 61.2% had a femoral neck fracture. Patients in the SDG (n = 95) and SAG (n = 107) were well matched. The PG differed from the SDG (n = 95) and SAG (n = 107) regarding NCD (85.3% vs. 57.9% vs. 36.4%, p < 0.01) and the presence of Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) (19.4% vs. 5.3% vs. 3.7%, p < 0.01). There were more known heart failure (24.2% vs. 16.3%, p < 0.01) and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in the SDG group than in the PG group (26.6 vs. 14.7%, p = 0.02). Patients in the SAG have a significant lower rate of NCD (OR 2,7 (95%CI 1,5-5,0)), heart failure (OR 5,7 (95%CI 1,9-16,4)) and COPD (OR 2,8 (95%CI 1,2-6,3)) than other groups. Prefracture mobility, autonomy and living situation significantly differed between the groups. Median survival was six days in PG and 17 days in SDG. All groups lost autonomy and mobility. There were more complications in the SDG group than in the PG group. The end-of-care trajectory was death or hospice for most patients in the PG and SDG groups. More than 30% of the SAG group could not return home at discharge. CONCLUSION: The presence of an NCD and diminished prefracture autonomy strongly support counseling for palliative care. The high rate of complications when surgery is proposed for frail patients with multiple comorbidities suggests that the concept of palliative surgery needs to be revisited.

Statins for primary prevention in multimorbid patients: to prescribe or not to prescribe? A qualitative analysis of general practitioners' decision-making processes.

INTRODUCTION: A better understanding of the determinants involved in general practitioners' (GPs) decision-making processes when it comes to prescribing statins as primary prevention in patients with multimorbidity could provide insights for improving implementation of primary prevention guidelines. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study using a deductive framework-based and inductive analysis of GPs' semi-structured interviews verbatim, from which expertise profiles of prescribers were also drawn. The analytical framework was built from a pragmatic synthesis of the evidence-based medicine, Modelling using Typified Objects (MOT) model of clinical reasoning processes, Theoretical Domains Framework, and shared decision-making frameworks. RESULTS: Fifteen GPs were interviewed between June 2019 and January 2020. Diabetes seemed to represent a specific motivation for deciding about statin prescription for primary prevention purposes; and in situations of multimorbidity, GPs differentiated between cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular multimorbidity. Expert prescribers seemed to have integrated the utilisation of cardiovascular risk calculation scores throughout their practice, whereas non-expert prescribers considered them difficult to interpret and preferred using more of a "rule of thumb" process. One interviewee used the risk calculation score as a support for discussing statin prescription with the patient. CONCLUSION: Our results shed light on the reasons why statins remain under-prescribed for primary prevention and why non-diabetic multimorbid patients have even lower odds of being prescribed a statin. They call for a change in the use of risk assessment scores, by placing them as decision aids, to support and improve personalised shared decision-making discussions as an efficient approach to improve the implementation of recommendations about statins for primary prevention.

Arthroscopic Subdeltoid Humeroplasty in the Beach-Chair Position for Reverse Hill-Sachs Lesions.

Reverse Hill-Sachs lesions (HSLs) often involve a greater percentage of the humeral head articular surface than posterior HSLs and frequently require surgical treatment in the setting of posterior shoulder instability. Multiple techniques have been described to treat these lesions depending on their size, acuity, and location. The (modified) McLaughlin procedure is widely used to treat smaller engaging lesions, whereas larger lesions involving a greater percentage of the humeral head articular surface require anatomic disimpaction, termed "humeroplasty." Humeroplasty is traditionally performed via an open approach. This technical note describes an arthroscopic subdeltoid humeroplasty technique for the reduction and fixation of reverse HSLs in the beach-chair position.

Adaptation of time-driven activity-based costing to the evaluation of the efficiency of ambulatory care provided in the emergency department.

Objectives: The aim of this study was: (1) to adapt the time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) method to emergency department (ED) ambulatory care; (2) to estimate the cost of care associated with frequently encountered ambulatory conditions; and (3) to compare costs calculated using estimated time and objectively measured time. Methods: TDABC was applied to a retrospective cohort of patients with upper respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, unspecified abdominal pain, lower back pain and limb lacerations who visited an ED in Québec City (Canada) during fiscal year 2015-2016. The calculated cost of care was the product of the time required to complete each care procedure and the cost per minute of each human resource or equipment involved. Costing based on durations estimated by care professionals were compared to those based on objective measurements in the field. Results: Overall, 220 care episodes were included and 3080 time measurements of 75 different processes were collected. Differences between costs calculated using estimated and measured times were statistically significant for all conditions except lower back pain and ranged from $4.30 to $55.20 (US) per episode. Differences were larger for conditions requiring more advanced procedures, such as imaging or the attention of ED professionals. Conclusions: The greater the use of advanced procedures or the involvement of ED professionals in the care, the greater is the discrepancy between estimated-time-based and measured-time-based costing. TDABC should be applied using objective measurement of the time per procedure.