University Orthopaedic Associates (UOA) members were part of an important study recently published in the March 2017 issue of The Lancet. Dr. Carlos A. Sagebien, Dr. Mark S. Butler and Dr. James T. Monica were investigators while Patricia Seuffert, MS, APN, was a research coordinator. This particular study was a multicenter study. In addition to providing participating members, UOA also provided one of the sites.

The article entitled Fracture fixation in the operative management of hip fractures (FAITH): an international, multicentre, randomised controlled trial gave the following summary of the topic:

“Reoperation rates are high after surgery for hip fractures. We investigated the effect of a sliding hip screw versus cancellous screws on the risk of reoperation and other key outcomes.”

The article explained that the international study was precipitated by the fact that 4 to 5 million people worldwide become disabled after sustaining a hip fracture per year. This translates to an expected increase of 21 million people living with disability due to hip fracture in the next 40 years. Despite the surgical intervention in these cases, however, reoperation rates remain high. In fact, these rates haven’t really changed in the past 30 years. The high proportion of these reoperations has generated controversy concerning the optimum approach for fixing femoral neck fractures, which served as the basis for this study.