Very old people can have favorable outcome after hip fracture: 58 patients referred to rehabilitation.

We examined both impairment and disability of 58 patients who were referred to our rehabilitation center after surgery of hip fracture. The mean age was 86.7 years. The impairment was measured by the Motricity Index (MI) scale and disability by means of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scale. At admission, the MI median value was 64 and at discharge the value was 84 (range of scale, 0-100). The FIM median value was 57.5 at admission and 82 at discharge (range of scale, 18-126). Our data indicate that, on average, patients recover, even at very advanced age, but still require supervision at discharge. Twelve patients died after complications of previous risk factors. When general conditions were satisfactory, no complications arose.