Background: One of the most urgent problems facing society nowadays is the rising cost of healthcare. Analysis of hospitalization periods following femoral fractures is an excellent model to properly evaluate hospital economic efficiency in their care of trauma cases.
Objective: To ascertain the typical hospital stay following femoral fractures admitted to the emergency department (ED) of Mansoura University Hospital.
Patients and Methods: This was a prospective observational cross-sectional study that was done at Mansoura Emergency Hospital. The study included 281 cases older than 18 years with femur fractures. Modified Frailty Index (MFI) was used for prediction of the occurrence of adverse events after different orthopaedic operations.
Results: The included patients were split into two groups: Group I included 126 patients with hospitalization period ≤ 7 days, and group II had 155 patients with longer periods. Patients in group II were significantly older than group I. The type of trauma had a significant impact on hospitalization period, as penetrating injuries were more common in group II. Patients in group II had significantly longer time intervals between the fracture and surgery. The need for mechanical ventilation increased significantly in group II. The presence of injuries was associated with longer hospitalization periods.
Conclusion: We concluded that the average hospitalization period after femur fractures was 10.4 days. Factors that increased the risk of longer hospitalization (more than one week) included older age, long time interval between injury and fixation, low GCS, high MFI, associated injuries, penetrating injuries, and need for mechanical ventilation.