Purpose: To assess rehabilitation, type of follow-up visits and outcome after bipolar hemiarthroplasty for femoral neck fracture.
Method: Two hundred thirty-six consecutive patients with femoral neck fractures treated with hemiarthroplasty were followed for 30 months.
Results: One hundred sixty-eight (71%) were women, 175 (74%) over 80 years old and 53 (22%) were demented. Of 150 patients with available 3-month data, 7 patients (5%) had not regained their walking ability. Seventy (47%) were pain-free and 112 (75%) were back in their original habitat. A hip-related complication leading to a contact with the orthopaedic department occurred in 20 of all patients (8%), and 7 (3%) of these underwent a revision surgery. One hundred eighty-seven patients (79%) received occupational therapy (OT). Demented patients received OT more seldom (p < 0.001), as did patients aged 90 and older (p = 0.049).
Conclusion: Due to the low rate of orthopaedic complications, these patients are now referred to their general practitioners, without any further follow-up at the orthopaedic department. Rehabilitation efforts are unevenly distributed. The need of increased rehabilitation efforts for demented or 'old old' patients is discussed.