Outcomes of Treatment Options for Acetabular Fractures in Older Patients

Four treatments for geriatric acetabular fractures have been described in the literature to date: nonoperative, percutaneous fixation, open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF), and acute arthroplasty. Data on nonoperative treatment and percutaneous fixation are limited. There are more studies on ORIF and a fair number of small studies on acute arthroplasty. These studies do provide some guidance to clinicians and an excellent starting point for further work. However, the current literature is flawed by small sample size, retrospective methodology, and obvious selection bias that render comparison between techniques impossible. Future work is needed to address this obvious knowledge gap as clinicians currently have significant decisional uncertainty regarding the ideal treatment for any individual patient.