In-hospital waiting time to surgery and functional outcomes in geriatric hip fractures: a directed acyclic graph-based preplanned analysis from a prospective multicenter cohort study

Abstract

The associations between in-hospital waiting time and postoperative functional score suggest that delayed surgery can lead to poor functional outcomes, especially in patients waiting longer than 72 h from injury. Delayed surgery mainly impacted hip function and mobility recovery with a slower speed in early recovery of the first 3 months. More attention should be paid to mechanisms behind the associations between delayed surgery on general healthy status.