Trauma in elderly patients evaluated in a hospital emergency department in Konya, Turkey: a retrospective study.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Kara, Hasan Bayir, Aysegul Ak, Ahmet Akinci, Murat Tufekci, Necmettin Degirmenci, Selim Azap, Melih
Copyright Year	2014
Abstract	PurposeTrauma is a common cause of admission to the hospital emergency department. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cause of admission, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of patients aged ≥65 years admitted to an emergency department in Turkey because of blunt trauma.Materials and methodsMedical records were retrospectively reviewed for 568 patients (314 women and 254 men) aged ≥65 years who were admitted to an emergency department of a tertiary care hospital.ResultsTrauma was caused by low-energy fall in 379 patients (67%), traffic accident in 79 patients (14%), high-energy fall in 69 patients (12%), and other causes in 41 patients (7%). The most frequent sites of injury were the lower extremity, thorax, upper extremity, and head. The femur was the most frequent fracture site. After evaluation in the emergency department, 377 patients (66%) were hospitalized. There were 31 patients (5%) who died. Risk of hospitalization after trauma was significantly associated with trauma to the lower extremity, thorax, and spine; fractures of the femur and rib; and intracranial injury.ConclusionEmergency department admission after trauma in patients aged ≥65 years is common after low-energy falls, and most injuries occur to the extremities. It is important to focus on prevention of falls to decrease the frequency of trauma in the elderly.
ISSN	11769092
Journal	Clinical Interventions in Aging
Volume Number	9
PubMed Central reference number	PMC3864940
PubMed reference number	24376346
e-ISSN	11781998
DOI	10.2147/CIA.S56542
Language	English
Publisher	Dove Medical Press
Publisher Date	2013-12-11
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. © 2014 Kara et al. This work is published by Dove Medical Press Limited, and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License
Subject Keyword	fall femur fracture injury
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Geriatrics and Gerontology