• Ir J Med Sci · Oct 2024

    Demographics, management and outcomes of major trauma in older patients at an Irish trauma unit.

    • Madeline Haines, Molly Maeve Measey, Ailbhe Whitty, Nigel McCoy, and Aileen McCabe.
    • School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
    • Ir J Med Sci. 2024 Oct 7.

    BackgroundMajor trauma data in the developed world trends towards increased rates of lower energy mechanism in an older cohort. This study examines how the mechanism of trauma, injury pattern and outcomes differ between a younger and older cohorts in an Irish trauma unit.MethodsIn this retrospective study, all entries to the Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) database from Tallaght University Hospital, between January 1st 2016 and 31st December 2021, were interrogated. Differences between injury severity, 30-day mortality, and hospital length of stay in younger and older patients were also examined.ResultsOlder patients (≥ 65 years) had a similar severity of injury to younger patients (< 65 years); however, they had longer stays in hospital (18.8 versus 9.5 days, p < 0.001). Older patients (≥ 65 years) were more likely to have head (16.1% versus 11.3%, p < 0.05) and cervical spine (21.4% versus 11.2%, p < 0.05) injuries as their primary injury compared with younger patients. Older patients (≥ 65 years) are less likely to have limb (33.3% versus 45.6%, p < 0.05). Fall from a height less than 2 m was more likely to be the mechanism of injury in the older cohort compared with the younger cohort (77.3% versus 36.3%, p < 0.05).ConclusionThis study highlights the increased mortality and morbidity experienced by older trauma patients compared with a younger cohort. The findings support the development of "silver trauma" care pathways and directing resources to meet the needs of older trauma patients and optimize clinical outcomes.© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.