More U.S. patients 90 and older are being hospitalized with fall-related injuries, but a new study shows they may have better outcomes than in the past.
Researchers in Pennsylvania looked at patients over age 90 admitted to a single trauma center after falls and found their numbers doubled over a 20-year span.
“Older adults are at increased risk of falling and undergoing significant injuries, even with trauma as simple as falling from standing or falling from bed,” lead author Andres X. Samayoa, M.D., a chief resident at Abington-Jefferson Health told Reuters Health.
In a study published online March 8 in the American Journal of Surgery, the authors analyzed trends for patients age 90 and over treated at Abington, a 665-bed regional hospital north of Philadelphia with a Level II trauma center.
Between 1996 and 2015, almost all of the 1,697 elderly fall patients suffered blunt trauma from falls.
In the first 10 years, the most common injuries were to the arms and spine. Over the next decade, the most common injuries were to lower extremities, ribs and the pelvis. More than one in five patients also experienced bleeding in the head.
Despite serious injuries, most patients were eventually discharged from the hospital, which the researchers theorized could be because more physical therapists, social workers and other staff are helping trauma patients at that hospital in recent years.
