The prevalence of PH in the global population is estimated to be 1% and rising up to 10% in those aged 65 years or above.8 Patients are living longer with PH due to advancements in therapies and as a result, the number of PH patients requiring emergent surgery continues to increase.6
TTE is not routinely indicated in all patients undergoing hip surgery. However, a preoperative echocardiogram should be considered if there is a history of significant cardiac disease or if the patient has new signs or symptoms suggestive of heart failure.9
It is widely accepted that a peak velocity of tricuspid regurgitation > 2.8m/s on TTE (calculated with right atrial pressure), corresponds to an RVSP of approximately 35mmHg and can be used to determine the probability of PH.1,9 In a recent epidemiological study, patients with a RVSP of 33–39 mmHg were noted to have an increased mortality compared to patients with RVSP < 33 mmHg.10 Echocardiographic estimates of RVSP are subject to potential inaccuracies in patients with suboptimal windows.3 Hence additional variables, such as interventricular septal flattening, right atrial area, inferior vena cava diameter and respiratory variation and diameter of the pulmonary artery, are used to refine the echocardiographic probability of PH.1
In our study, 48 of 115 patients (42%) had an elevated RVSP, one of the echocardiographic features suggestive of PH. Only 5 of these patients (4%) had a previous diagnosis of PH. This suggests that there is a significant number of patients with elevated RVSP in the community, who may be at risk of PH but remain undiagnosed and untreated in the community.
One hundred and fourteen of the 115 patients (99%) had either a total or hemiarthroplasty of the hip, with 85% of patients having emergency surgery. (Table 3) Total hip replacement is traditionally associated with a longer duration of surgery when compared to hip hemiarthroplasty.11 Patients undergoing total hip replacement with an established diagnosis of PH have an approximately 4-fold increased adjusted risk of mortality compared to patients without PH.12 A higher proportion of patients in the elevated RVSP in our study group underwent hemiarthroplasty of the hip however the duration of surgery was similar in both groups.
We found no difference in perioperative management (mode of anesthesia, intraoperative monitoring, incidence of hemodynamic instability or admission to a Critical Care bed) between the two groups of patients. Sixteen percent of all our patients were admitted to a Critical Care bed after surgery. In a study from Edinburgh, 2.4% of elderly patients who presented with hip fracture required admission to the Critical Care unit.13
The time from surgery to hospital discharge was prolonged in both groups (16 versus 14 days) reflecting the general frailty and burden of comorbid disease encountered in this cohort of patients presenting for emergency hip surgery. Delays in discharge are contributed to by a multitude of factors, including inadequate stepdown and community care.14
In our study, nine patients died before hospital discharge. All of the deaths were recorded in the elevated RVSP patient group with no deaths in the normal RVSP group (9/48 (19%) vs 0/67 (0%), p = < 0.001). Four patients died within one week of surgery after a cardiac arrest. The remaining 5 patients died a median of 26 (IQR 24,59) days after surgery due to pneumonia and progression of comorbid disease, often complicated by delirium. These findings suggest that identifying elevated RVSP preoperatively could improve risk assessment with allocation of appropriate postoperative resources and follow-up for these patients.
Patients with elevated preoperative RVSP were older and had a higher incidence of atrial fibrillation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Despite the low event rate of in-hospital mortality in our study population, a multivariate analysis did not establish an additional mortality risk with these possible confounding factors. Similarly in a study of 47,784 patients referred for echocardiography, even a mild elevation of RVSP was found to be pathogenic in its own right and the associated increased mortality was not explained fully by comorbid conditions.10
Ming et al. reviewed 25 patients with a definitive diagnosis of PH who underwent elective hip or knee replacement surgery in a recognized PH centre.15 They reported no perioperative deaths, however 11 patients (44%) experienced a significant complication, including hypotension requiring vasopressors, blood transfusion and non-orthopedic infection. The authors concluded that with careful patient selection and optimal perioperative care, good outcomes can be achieved. 15 In a similar study of 16 patients with severe PH undergoing major orthopedic surgery, one patient (6%) died due to pneumonia and 6 patients (37%) had significant postoperative complications including bleeding, dysrhythmia and poor wound healing.16
The mortality rate in our patients was higher than in the above studies despite their patients having a definitive diagnosis of PH, with many already stabilised on PH therapy and were undergoing elective procedures in an established PH centre. Under these circumstances, a comprehensive preoperative assessment by a multidisciplinary team can formulate an individualized perioperative care plan. In contrast, the majority of patients in our study were undergoing emergency surgery or were deemed high risk with only 4% having a definitive diagnosis of PH. Current guidelines recommend surgery within 36 hours for patients with hip fracture, limiting the time available for preoperative optimization.4,17
Our study has several important limitations. Our retrospective observational study, can only infer association and not causation. The multivariate analysis performed is limited by the low event rate of in hospital mortality within our study. The patients included our study were high risk including those presenting for emergency hip fracture repair and patients for elective joint replacement deemed too high risk to be performed elsewhere. Only 115 out of a total of these 574 (20%) patients having hip surgery during the study period had a preoperative TTE, with the decision to request a preoperative TTE likely including patients considered at even higher perioperative risk. Our elevated RVSP patient cohort had some echocardiographic features of PH, however without RHC data, no definitive diagnosis of PH can be made. The preoperative TTE’s performed on our patients were not focused right-heart studies, additional features used to refine the echogenic probability of pulmonary hypertension were not consistently included in the TTE reports. Our study was conducted in a single hospital that has a well-established PH service, thus the findings may have limited generalisability. Other than documenting hospital length of stay and mortality, our study did not include ward-based follow-up of our patients.