Table 6.

 Complications up to 24 months in patients with hip fracture according to type of treatment. All complications are counted so more than one may apply for each hip. Figures are numbers (percentages) of patients unless stated otherwise*

	Internal fixation (n=111)	Hemiarthroplasty (n=108)
Wound dehiscence >1 week	0 (0)	2 (2)
Painful protruding screws	3 (3)	0 (0)
Painful heterotopic ossification	1 (1)	1 (1)
Deep venous thrombosis	1 (1)	0 (0)
Pulmonary embolism	2 (2)	0 (0)
Pressure sore	3 (3)	1 (1)
Ipsilateral above knee amputation	1 (1)	0 (0)
Radiographic loosening of hemiarthroplasty†	0 (0)	1 (1)
Dislocation of hemiarthroplasty†	6 (5)	1 (1)
Deep infection†‡	7 (6)	7 (7)
Mechanical failure of internal fixation/non-union†§	40 (36)	3 (3)
Avascular necrosis†	6 (5)	0 (0)
Total No of complications¶	70	16
No of hips with any complication**	56 (50)	16 (15)
No of hips with major complication related to method††	47 (42)	11 (10)

*Excludes two patients who died preoperatively, one in each group, and one patient in hemiarthroplasty group lost to follow-up.

†Registered as major complication related to method when there was attributable pain or reduced function.

‡ Six of the seven deep infections in patients in internal fixation group were in those who had hemiarthroplasty, either as primary procedure because of intraoperative problems (n=3) or after failure of internal fixation (n=3).

§Three patients in hemiarthroplasty group with mechanical failure primarily underwent internal fixation (fig 1).

¶P<0.001

**Relative risk (95% CI) 3.44 (2.11 to 5.60), P<0.001.

††Relative risk (95% CO) 4.16 (2.28 to 7.58), P<0.001.