Publication:

Outcome of preventive interventions on the prevalence of constipation in hip fracture patients admitted in orthopaedic ward of a tertiary care hospital in eastern India

Background Orthopedic patients admitted with hip fractures are prone to developing constipation due to pain and immobility in bed. The reported incidence for constipation in orthopaedic patients varies from 44 % after thoracolumbar fusion surgery to 18-72% after hip replacement surgery to 39-43%.

Methods This study was conducted for the admitted patients with hip fracture in orthopaedic ward of a tertiary care hospital. The study period was divided into first 3 months where prevalence was measured while administering the present standard nursing care, without any active preventive interventions and next 3 months where the prevalence was measured after adding implementation of active preventive interventions.

Results The study had 78 % incidence of constipation in the former group compared to 26 % in intervention group. This was found to be significant statistically.

Conclusions It was safely concluded that implementation of our preventive intervention protocol in all our admitted patients with hip fractures the prevalence of constipation could be significantly reduced.