The impact of the levels of weight bearing in functional outcome, as measured by Functional Independence Measure (FIM™) in patients with hip surgery repair.

Aim: Rehabilitation of hip surgery after fracture or osteoarthritis in older people is a challenge both for erlier mobilization and finally, reintegration. Depending on the surgical procedure followed, the patient is initially instructed in: without, partial or full load. Our aim is to study the ultimate functional capacity of these patients, using the Functional Independence Measure FIM.

Material-Method: We refer to 516 consecutive patients with hip surgery who were hospitalized at the “Euromedica Assistance” rehabilitation center in 2017. Of these, 43 patients had a no-loading instruction (group A)  (mean age 80 years, mean Length of Stay (LoS) 37 days); 347 patients for partial loading (group B) (mean age 81 years, LoS 31 days) and 126 for full load (group C) (mean age 80, LoS 37 days). Evaluation was made within the first 3 days of admission and within 3 days before discharge. We did not take into account the type of surgery, because the FIM does not distinguish the technique followed, rather than the patient’s functional adequacy.

Results: These are shown in the table for all the groups created

Conclusions: It seems clear that patients who had at the beginning of their mobilization the partial or full weight bearing instructions, although having a higher admition index, showed significantly higher rates of improvement in the final assessment, indicating that the faster loading of the limb, offers greater functional capacity and patient independence