Intra- and extracapsular hip fractures in the elderly: Two different pathologies?

Abstract Objectives To compare intracapsular (IC) and extracapsular (EC) hip fractures (HIF) in elderly patients in order to determine if they are different pathologies. Subjects and methods Longitudinal, observational, descriptive, analytical prospective design, using a non-probabilistic sample from a full sample collection with 647 subjects (male and female), of 60 or more years old, admitted with HIF to the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology of the Hospital, between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012. Follow-up was for 1 year post HIF. Socio-demographic, etiological, developmental, therapeutic and prognostic variables are compared. Results This is the first study on this subject with Latin American population. EC HIF incidence was superior to IC, contrary to that published in European/American populations. There are significant differences in etiological variables ( χ 2  = 6.34, P P Discussion The results are similar to other studies, adding the IC association with non-traumatic origin, in particular the trend of statistical association between IC and non-primary osteoporotic pathology (neoplasms, renal osteodystrophy, primary hyperparathyroidism). A further analysis was performed on the differences between Latin American and European/American populations in the incidence of either type of HIF. There are important etiological and therapeutic differences between IC and EC HIF; therefore it would be advisable to consider them as distinct disease entities.