Mortality associated with bone fractures in COPD patients

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE COPD is well known to frequently coexist with osteoporosis. Bone fractures often occur and may affect mortality in COPD patients. However, in-hospital mortality related to bone fractures in COPD patients has been poorly studied. This retrospective study investigated in-hospital mortality of COPD patients with bone fractures using a national inpatient database in Japan. METHODS Data of COPD patients admitted with bone fractures, including hip, vertebra, shoulder, and forearm fractures to 1,165 hospitals in Japan between July 2010 and March 2013, were extracted from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database. The clinical characteristics and mortalities of the patients were determined. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was also performed to determine the factors associated with in-hospital mortality of COPD patients with hip fractures. RESULTS Among 5,975 eligible patients, those with hip fractures (n=4,059) were older, had lower body mass index (BMI), and had poorer general condition than those with vertebral (n=1,477), shoulder (n=281), or forearm (n=158) fractures. In-hospital mortality was 7.4%, 5.2%, 3.9%, and 1.3%, respectively. Among the hip fracture group, surgical treatment was significantly associated with lower mortality (adjusted odds ratio, 0.43; 95% confidence interval, 0.32-0.56) after adjustment for patient backgrounds. Higher in-hospital mortality was associated with male sex, lower BMI, lower level of consciousness, and having several comorbidities, including pneumonia, lung cancer, congestive heart failure, chronic liver disease, and chronic renal failure. CONCLUSION COPD patients with hip fractures had higher mortality than COPD patients with other types of fracture. Surgery for hip fracture was associated with lower mortality than conservative treatment.