Citation

Vera P, Lampart A, Kammerlander C, Boecker W, Nickel CH, Bingisser R. J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. 2019; 67(7): 1527-1529.

Affiliation

Department of Emergency Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/jgs.15915

PMID

30920651

Abstract

To the Editor: Low‐energy falls (LEFs) constitute a common reason for emergency department (ED) presentation in older adults. Their incidence increases with age, and they are the leading mechanism of injury in older patients. Studies from trauma registry databases suggest that injury severity in these individuals is similar to younger patients with high‐energy mechanisms, and that LEFs are associated with morbidity and mortality increasing with age. Moreover, initial prehospital and ED assessments seem to underestimate severity. As these studies were based on trauma registries, results may be biased, as only a minority of LEFs triggers trauma‐team activation. Therefore, we analyzed baseline demographics and outcomes in a large consecutive cohort of older individuals presenting to the ED after an LEF, focusing on patients undergoing computed tomographic (CT) examination without trauma‐team activation in two larger urban level I trauma centers in Germany and Switzerland.

Methods
This retrospective bicentric observational study was based on the data of two university hospitals in Switzerland (Basel) and Germany (Munich), according to Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies on Epidemiolgy (STROBE) guidelines ...

Language: en