Trauma analysis of patients over age of 65 who apply to emergency service

Year 2017, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 7 - 14, 15.06.2017

Nazlı Gormeli Kurt , Songül Araç Evren Ekıngen Murat Orak Mehmet Ustundag

Abstract

Background: Changes in the physiology of patients over the age of 65 and additional internal pathologies cause them to be subject to trauma more often and change their ability to respond trauma. The purpose of this study is to make demographic analysis of geriatrics patients who apply to emergency service of Batman Regional State Hospital.
Method: Our study involves patients over the age of 65 who applied to Batman Regional State Hospital in 1st February 2016-31st January 2017. 615 cases which were considered convenient with study criteria, had been examined retrospectively. The reason of application of cases, social demographic characteristics, specifications, additional diseases, the month of trauma, trauma area, trauma hour, mortality rates, GKS (Glasgow Coma Scale) and RTS (Revised Trauma Score) were obtained from automation system and case files.
Results: 615 patients were included into study 252 of which were male and 363 were female. The average age of patients was 74.36. 70% of patients (n=433) were illiterate. The most common trauma was falling. Women patients were applied to service due to reason of falling than men. We used an anatomic scoring system called “Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS)” and we divided patients into two groups as local and multiple according to the number of trauma areas. 58% (n=354) of patients were local cases while 42% (n=259) of them were multiple trauma cases and in both of the groups the most of affected body parts were extremities. In total, 6.17% (n=38) of patients were exitus. 11 of them died in emergency services. Most of patients died (78.94%) due to multiple trauma and they were mostly subject to traffic accidents. The most accompanying comorbid disease to deaths is hypertension.
Conclusion: Both in our country and globally, the elderly population is increasing rapidly. The deaths due to trauma has a significant share in geriatric age group. Thus, it is significantly important to eliminate geriatric traumas and to intervene to the cases with multidisciplinary approach beginning from emergency services.

Keywords

Trauma, geriatrics

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