American Society of Anesthesiologist Physical Status score may be used as a comorbidity index in hip fracture surgery.

Comorbidities affect outcome, but there is no consensus which comorbidity instrument is best in orthopedic surgery. We assessed whether the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status score (ASA) predicts long-term mortality after hip fracture. We followed 1635 patients for 5 to 10 years after operative treatment of hip fracture. Unadjusted Kaplan-Meyer statistics indicated that the overall survival of the patients was 4.7 (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.5-4.9) years, but survival varied significantly between the ASA groups. Survival for ASA 1 was 8.5 years (95% CI, 7.8-9.2); for ASA 2, it was 5.6 years (95% CI, 5.3-5.9); for ASA 3, it was 3.5 years (95% CI, 3.2-3.7); and for ASA 4, survival was 1.6 years (95% CI, 1.0-2.1). The ASA predicts long-term mortality after hip fracture treatment. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.