Patients exposed to a surgical safety checklist experience better postoperative outcomes, but this could simply reflect wider quality of care in hospitals where checklist use is routine.

The Exeter TM Universal hip (Stryker Inc., Newbury, UK) has reported survival rates of 91.74% at 12 years in all patients with reoperation as an endpoint. However, its performance in younger patients has not been fully established. We reviewed survivorship and the clinical and radiographic outcomes of this hip system implanted in 107 patients (130 hips) 50 years old or younger at the time of surgery. The mean age at surgery was 42 years. The minimum followup was 10 years (mean, 12.5 years; range, 10-17 years) with no patients lost to followup. Twelve hips had been revised. Of these, nine had aseptic loosening of the acetabular component and one cup was revised for focal lysis and pain. One hip was revised for recurrent dislocation and one joint underwent revision for infection. Radiographs demonstrated 14 (12.8%) of the remaining acetabular prostheses were loose but no femoral components were loose. Survivorship of both stem and cup from all causes was 92.6% at an average of 12.5 years. Survivorship of the stem from all causes was 99% and no stem was revised for aseptic loosening. The Exeter TM

INTRODUCTION Acute gastrointestinal stress ulceration is a common and serious complication of trauma. Prophylactic proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or histamine receptor antagonists have been used in poly-trauma, burns and head and spinal injuries, as well as on intensive care units, for the prevention of acute gastric stress ulcers. METHODS We prospectively studied the use of prophylactic PPIs in with femoral neck fracture patients, gathering data on all acute gastric ulcer complications, including coffee-ground vomiting, malena and haematemesis. We then implemented a treatment protocol in which all patients were given prophylactic PPIs, again prospectively collecting all data. RESULTS Five hundred and fifteen patients were included. Prior to prophylactic PPI, 15% of patients developed gastric stress ulcer complications, with 3% requiring acute intervention with oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD), 5% requiring transfusions and 4% experiencing surgical delays. All patients had delayed discharges. Following PPI implementation, no patients developed gastric stress ulcer complications. CONCLUSIONS Femoral neck fracture patients create a substantial workload for orthopaedic units. The increasingly elderly population often have comorbidities, and concomitantly use medications with gastrointestinal side effects. This, combined with the stress of a fracture and preoperative starvation periods increases the risk of gastric ulcers. Here, the use of prophylactic PPIs statistically reduced the incidence of gastric stress ulcers in patients with femoral neck fractures, resulting in fewer surgical delays, reduced length of hospital stay and reduced stress ulcer-related mortality.