Overall survival rate is most important measure

BMJ 1995;311:572 (26 August)

Letters

Overall survival rate is most important measure

EDITOR,--The audit of hip fracture in East Anglia concludesthat anticoagulant prophylaxis against thromboembolism reducesthe frequency of fatal pulmonary embolism.¹ The haemorrhagicside effects of such treatment may, however, be important ina group of patients known to have a high prevalence of coexistingcardiovascular and gastrointestinal disease.² The overall mortalityrather than the mortality related to pulmonary embolism shouldtherefore be recorded.

When hospital 6, which seemed to confer an idiosyncratic benefitto patients, is excluded the 90 day survival was marginallylower in the hospitals in which pharmaceutical thromboprophylaxiswas used routinely than in those in which it was not (table).The mortality from causes other than pulmonary embolism wassignificantly higher in the hospitals in which prophylaxis wasused routinely {chi} ²=5.5, P=0.02).

90 Day survival and mortality from pulmonary embolism according to use of prophylaxis (figures are numbers (percentages)) ------------------------------------------------------------ Death due to: ------------------------------------------------------------ No of . . . [Full text of this article]

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Differences in mortality after fracture of hip: the East Anglian audit: C J Todd, C J Freeman, C Camilleri-Ferrante, C R Palmer, A Hyder, C E Laxton, M J Parker, B V Payne, and N Rushton
BMJ 1995 310: 904-908. [Abstract] [Full Text]