Background: Geriatric patients undergoing hemiarthroplasty for hip fractures have unacceptably high rates of postoperative complications and mortality. Whether anesthesia type can affect the outcomes has still been inconclusive.

Objectives: We compared general anesthesia (GA) and peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs) on postoperative complications and mortality in elderly patients with femoral neck fractures (FNF) undergoing hemiarthroplasty.

Materials and methods: This retrospective study involved data collection from an electronic database. Two hundred and seventeen patients underwent hemiarthroplasty for FNF between January 2008 and December 2012 at the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital. Data on mortality within in-hospital, 30-day, and 1-year, complications, comorbidities, blood loss and transfusion, operative time, postoperative hospital length of stay, intensive care unit admission, and hospital charge were collected and analyzed. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses of all variables were used for 30-day and 1-year mortality.

Results: Seventy-two patients receiving GA and 145 receiving PNBs were eventually submitted and analyzed. Mortality was 6.9%, 14.7%, and 23.5% at in-hospital, 30-day, and 1-year, respectively postoperatively, while mortality and cardiovascular complications did not differ between the two anesthetic techniques. Preoperative comorbidities and intraoperative parameters were not statistically different except that patients receiving GA were more likely to have dementia (Ⅹ ²=10.45, P =0.001). The most common complications were acute cardiovascular events, electrolyte disturbances, and delirium. Postoperative acute respiratory events and hypoxemia both were also common, but no differences were found between groups (Ⅹ ²=0.68, P =0.410; Ⅹ ²=3.42, P =0.065, respectively). Key factors negatively influencing mortality included: age, male gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists status, dementia, perioperative cardiovascular events and respiratory events, postoperative stroke, myocardial infarction, and hypoxia.

Conclusion: Mortality and postoperative complications are not statistically significantly different between PNBs and GA among eldery patients undergoing hemiarthroplasty for FNF.
Keywords: femoral neck fractures, elderly, mortality, postoperative complications