Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Releases a New Report on Hip Fracture Pain and Management

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) would like to make you aware of a new report on hip fracture pain and management. This new Federal report concludes most treatments to relieve pain for patients who suffer a broken hip work at least in the short term, but finds a lack of evidence supporting one treatment over another. In addition, the report highlights an overall lack of high-quality data and evidence.

AHRQ has also released a clinician guide and companion consumer guide explaining hip fractures and summarizing the available treatment options. These guides are available online and may also be ordered from AHRQ's Clearinghouse by calling 800-358-9295 (please reference the code "C-02" when ordering). 

These guides are based on the report, Comparative Effectiveness of Pain Management Interventions for Hip Fracture, prepared by researchers at the University of Alberta Evidence-based Practice Center and supported by AHRQ. The research covered the following interventions: systemic analgesia, anesthesia, complementary and alternative medicine, multimodal pain management, nerve blocks, neurostimulation, rehabilitation and traction.

Key findings include:

• Most interventions result in improvements in short-term, patient-reported pain scores; however, there were few differences in long-term clinical importance when comparisons between interventions are available.
• Complication rates were generally low and the majority of complications were not significantly different among the interventions.
• In the absence of notable difference in treatment effectiveness and safety, pain management in hip fracture patients relies heavily on available treatments, including staff skills and training, and patients' pre-existing conditions.
• More research is needed to determine the relative effectiveness of pain interventions for hip fracture patients, including multi-center research studies and standardization of outcomes and methods.
• We also hope you will take a moment to visit the Effective Health Care Program website http://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov to learn more about AHRQ's patient-centered outcomes research, and download other materials. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact us at EHC_Outreach@ahrq.hhs.gov.

The Agency's Effective Health Care Program represents an important Federal effort to compare treatments for health conditions and make the findings public. The program is intended to help patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and others choose the most effective treatments. Additional related resources from AHRQ include more consumer and clinician guides, including Osteoporosis Treatments That Help Prevent Broken Bones: A Guide for Women After Menopause and Fracture Prevention Treatments for Postmenopausal Women with Osteoporosis.