Introduction As a result of the socioeconomic problems of the aged, the majority of patients with fractures of the hip in an urban area is treated in municipal hospitals. This is reflected by the admission of 496 such patients to the Queens Hospital Center in the 4-year period from 1955-1958. Since all of these cases were treated by resident surgeons under the supervision of an attending staff composed of many general surgeons, a comparison with series reported from private or university institutions appears worthwhile. It was hoped that the use of internal fixation in the therapy of hip fractures would bring the mortality and morbidity of this condition within acceptable limits, but recent reports of mortality rates have not borne this out. Our study has been undertaken to evaluate whether the treatment, by a diverse group of surgeons, on an unselected series of patients taken from a lower socioeconomic stratum