Revue médicale suisse
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Revue médicale suisse · Nov 2010
[Orthogeriatric unit: a marriage of convenience between orthopedic surgeon and geriatrician?].
Hip fracture in the elderly can be associated with dramatic issues like death in the year or severe handicap requiring admission in a nursing home. Implementation of a close cooperation between orthopaedic surgeon and geriatrician materialize in the creation of unit, known as orthogeriatric unit where the roles of each member are precisely defined from admission to discharge, with coordinated care protocols and standardized orders. Benefits of the orthogeriatric ward are clarified in this paper, referring to literature, with description of an improvement of functional score after 3 months, reduction of in-hospital mortality and post-operative complications.