The older they are the harder they fall: Injury patterns and outcomes by age after ground level falls

摘要

Background: Trauma centers are seeing an increasing number of geriatric patients that are more susceptible to injuries even from relatively minor insults such as a ground level fall (GLF). As life expectancy increases, people are living in the geriatric age bracket for decades and often use anticoagulation agents for various comorbidities. We hypothesize that this patient population is not homogenous and we investigated the injury patterns and outcomes after GLF as a function of age and anticoagulation use. We also sought to identify injury patterns and patient characteristics of GLF patients.