October 9, 2023 – Artificial intelligence tools for treating hip fractures are on the rise.
The latest study from researchers on the University of Pennsylvania can predict a patient's risk of death after a hip fracture, an underestimated health risk that affects a whole bunch of 1000’s of Americans every year.
This innovation will help doctors discover high-risk patients so that they can assist them and potentially save lives.
“We wanted to try a number of different AI algorithms, feed them all the information and then see what the most accurate predictor of mortality we could get,” said study co-author Abhinav Suri, a medical student on the University of California, Los Angeles.
Other recent advances can predict the chance of fracture of the unreal hip joint and recreation mobility after hip surgery. Previous experiments also used AI to evaluate mortality rates risk after Hip fracturehowever the new study more algorithms were tested and more patient data was included, the researchers say.
The researchers used a decade's price of knowledge from 3,751 hip fracture patients to coach 10 machine learning algorithms. The resulting models provide a “mortality risk score.” The models were evaluated on how well they might predict mortality 1, 5, and 10 years after a hip fracture.
The models “learned” from the outcomes of 149 laboratory tests and 7 demographic variables. From these data points, the researchers identified the ten characteristics which are most vital for the chance of death. At the highest of the list was age, followed by blood sugar levels.
“There is currently no death risk calculator for hip fractures,” said Cory Calendine, MD, an orthopedic surgeon on the Bone and Joint Institute of Tennessee who was not involved within the study. Some methods, corresponding to the Charlson Comorbidity Index, can assist predict death more generally, but have limited applicability in fracture care.
The model may not change the way in which doctors treat hip fractures, which nearly all the time require surgery, nevertheless it could help doctors counsel families or signal a health care skilled to recommend more frequent or intensive follow-up care.
How AI could help solve a “major public health problem”
More than 300,000 In the United States, people suffer a hip fracture every yr. 20% to 40% die inside a yr, and a 3rd of those that survive longer lose their independence.
“Hip fractures are a huge public health problem. A preventive approach is actually needed,” said Cody C. Wyles, MD, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and clinical anatomy on the Mayo Clinic, who was not involved within the study. “One of the reasons the injury is so devastating is not so much the injury itself, but that it is a sign of poor health.”
Many patients with hip fractures have poor bone mineral density, muscle strength and immune function, Wyles said. Not having the ability to be mobile after surgery will be devastating for these patients.
Organ failure soon after hip surgery is “very rare,” but may end up from the discharge of bone marrow into the body, each when the fracture occurs and after bone implants are placed during surgery, in response to Wyles. Bone marrow can leak into the lungs, putting strain on the guts and blood vessels.
Wyles led the Artificial Intelligence in Orthopedic Surgery Lab at Mayo Clinic, where researchers develop risk-prediction tools for patients and use artificial intelligence to create synthetic versions of patient X-rays that will be viewed from multiple angles. AI models may also determine targets for robotic tools to aim at during surgery.
Still, relating to hip fractures, “nutrition and exercise are far more important than artificial intelligence to help us overcome this crisis,” Wyles said.