• Georg Osterhoff, Max J Scheyerer, Ulrich J Spiegl, Klaus J Schnake, Holger Siekmann, and Arbeitsgruppe Osteoporotische Frakturen der Sektion Wirbelsäule der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie.
• Klinik für Traumatologie, UniversitätsSpital Zürich, Raemistrasse 100, 8091, Zürich, Schweiz. georg.osterhoff@usz.ch.
• Unfallchirurg. 2019 Apr 1; 122 (4): 293-298.

BackgroundGeriatric sacral fractures represent an independent fracture entity of increasing incidence and growing socioeconomic relevance. The goals of treatment are very different to those in younger patients with high-energy pelvic fractures. Hence, new outcome measurement instruments are required in order to assess the success of treatment.ObjectiveLiterature review summarizing existing concepts and providing an overview of outcome measurement instruments for geriatric sacral fractures.MethodsNarrative review article based on an analysis of the German and English-speaking literature from the last 10 years.ResultsGeriatric sacral fractures result in impaired mobility, increased physical and social loss of dependency and increased morbidity and mortality rates. There is a lack of standardized specific assessment procedures for functional outcome measurement after geriatric sacral fractures. Until these are developed and validated, a parallel acquisition of mortality, the timed up and go test, the Oswestry disability index (ODI) and a generic healthcare questionnaire score (SF-36, EQ-5D) seem to be most suitable.ConclusionAt present our knowledge about the natural course of geriatric sacral fractures is limited by the lack of well-validated instruments to measure functional and radiographic outcomes. This has to be considered when evaluating the success of new treatment options for these patients. Future studies should validate existing scores for this population and develop new specific outcome instruments.

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