Background We have reported that the functional outcome in elderly with hip fracture is related to age at admission, dementia, and anemia. In this study, we examined the relationship between hemoglobin level at admission and walking ability, as well as survival outcome at discharge. Materials and methods We studied 394 patients aged 60 years or older treated at our hospital for hip fracture since 1997. Anemia was defined as an admission hemoglobin level\13.0 g/dl for men and\12.0 g/dl for women. The relationships between anemia status with age at admission, gender, fracture type, residence before injury, walking ability at discharge, length of hospital stay, and survival outcome were analyzed. Results Anemia was observed in 266 of 394 patients. Univariate analysis identified no relationship between the status of anemia and age, gender, walking ability before injury, treatment modality, or length of hospital stay. On the other hand, 106 of 266 patients in the anemic group were residing in institutions, and as many as 72.9% of patients in the anemic group had trochanteric fracture. For walking ability at discharge, 92 of 128 patients without anemia were ambulatory compared with only 130 of 266 patients with anemia, with a significant difference between the two groups. Furthermore, there were 15 in-hospital deaths in the anemic group compared with one death in the nonanemic group. Multivariate analysis identified three independent items: age, fracture type, and walking ability at discharge, as related to the status of anemia. Conclusions Hemoglobin level at admission is related to outcome in patients with hip fracture.

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Surgery is the treatment of choice for patients aged 90 years and older with proximal femoral fracture. However, they have a lower rate of regaining pre-injury walking ability and a higher in-hospital death rate than younger patients.

Symptomatic spinal epidural lipomatosis is a rare disorder characterized by overgrowth of fat in the extradural space. Most patients have an underlying endocrine disorder, such as Cushing's syndrome, or have taken exogenous steroids chronically. Although less common, obesity alone is thought to be a cause of spinal epidural lipomatosis, representing <25% of reported cases. Patients rarely become symptomatic before middle age without chronic exogenous steroid use. The usual clinical manifestations are similar to degenerative lumbar stenosis with neurogenic claudication, resulting in decreased walking and standing endurance with variable neurological deficits.This article describes 2 unique cases of spinal epidural lipomatosis, both in young patients with underlying morbid obesity who presented with acute progressive leg weakness and urinary retention. The patients had no underlying endocrinopathy, nor any history of exogenous steroid use. They underwent emergency laminectomy and removal of epidural fat, and histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of epidural lipomatosis. Postoperatively, the patients demonstrated significant improvement.We conducted a review of the available English literature and compared the age distribution in each group. Based on our review, our 2 patients are considerably younger than those in past reports, especially in the patient group to which the steroid was not administered. In addition, few cases exist of spinal epidural lipomatosis with acute sphincter dysfunction and paraparesis. Our cases suggest that morbid obesity can lead to juvenile spinal epidural lipomatosis with acute neurological changes.