Currently, each year more than 300,000 Americans sustain a hip fracture, and that number is expected to rise to more than 500,000 within the next 20 to 30 years. A new study– based on a literature review, analysis of Medicare claims, and input from clinical experts–finds that the average lifetime societal benefit from surgery to repair hip fractures reduced the direct medical costs of the surgery by $65,000 per patient. Collectively, that results in an estimated $16 billion lifetime societal savings. These savings include reductions in length of and intensity of postinjury care, and the amount of required long-term medical care and assistance required by surgery patients relative to those whose fractures are treated nonsurgically. The study, published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, also found that the quality-adjusted life years in people with surgically treated hip fractures increased 2.5 years for patients with intracapsular fractures and 1.9 years for those with extracapsular fractures. To view a summary of the article, read here.