Abstract
In today’s rapidly aging society, the number of patients with femur fractures has been increasing. Femur fractures in the elderly occur readily in minor accidents, such as falls at home. A Patient’s mobility is decreased after suffering a femoral fracture, and their oral hygiene worsens quickly as they are unable to care for their teeth and mouth. The most common postoperative complication in these patients is pneumonia. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of perioperative oral care in the prevention of postoperative complications in elderly patients with femur fractures. The research was conducted on 165 patients aged over 70 years, with femur fractures.
The patients were classified into a group of 79 people that were given perioperative oral care (care group) and a group of 86 people that did not receive perioperative oral care (non-care group). For one month after surgery, the following conditions were monitored in the patients: the presence of high fever, high fever that lasted for 3 days, the onset of pneumonia, and wound infection. The frequency of high fevers that lasted for 3 days after surgery was higher in the non-care group than in the care group. However there were no statistically significant differences. The onset of pneumonia, however, was observed in only one case in the care group, compared to seven cases in the non-care group. Therefore the prevention of pneumonia in the care group was more successful statistically. Postoperative wound infection was only found in one case: in the non-care group.
The results therefore show that perioperative oral care is useful for the prevention of post-operative pneumonia in elderly patients with femur fractures.
