Ankara Medical Journal (Sep 2020)

Evaluation of Revised Trauma Score in Geriatric Trauma Patients

  • Seda Fidan,
  • Gulhan Kurtoglu Celık,
  • Ayhan Özhasenekler,
  • Alp Şener,
  • Fatih Tanrıverdi,
  • Gül Pamukçu Günaydın,
  • Çağdaş Yıldırım,
  • Servan Gökhan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5505/amj.2020.24993
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 3
pp. 578 – 587

Abstract

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INTRODUCTION: In the geriatric population, body response to trauma changes with age-varying physiology. Scoring systems are studied in many patient groups and diseases in terms of hospitalization requirement and prognosis prediction. In this study, we aimed to determine the demographic characteristics of patients over 65 years of age who applied to the emergency department with trauma, and to evaluate the RTS score together with the form of trauma. METHODS: The study is a prospective, cross-sectional study. Trauma patients aged 65 and over who applied to a university hospital emergency room between 01/12 / 2017- 31/05/2018 were included in the study. Demographic data, vital signs, physical examination findings, imaging, laboratory results, erythrocyte suspension (ES) requirement, patient outcomes, and in-hospital and 28-day mortality were recorded. RTS scores of all patients were calculated. RESULTS: During the study period, 4898 geriatric patients applied to the emergency department. 229 patients with the inclusion criteria were included in our study. 153 (66.81%) of the study patients were women and the median age was 79 (IQR 72-86). The most common comorbid disease in patients was hypertension (n = 109, 47.59%). The most common complaint was to drop. The median RTS of the patients was found to be 12. When the last diagnoses of the patients were analyzed, it was seen that soft tissue trauma (YDT) (31.87%) and femur / hip fracture (23.58%) were the most common. Compared to normal and low patients according to RTS scores, it was observed that the group with low Alzheimer / dementia, presence of previous stroke, erythrocyte suspension requirement and mortality rate were higher (p <0.001, p = 0.002, p <0.001, p = 0.002, respectively). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: With the development of living standards, the elderly population is increasing in our country. Accordingly, the probability of the elderly population exposed to trauma also increases. In our study, we showed that the patients were admitted to the emergency room most frequently due to mechanical or non-mechanical fall, the most common injury area was extremity / pelvis, and the presence of Alzheimer's / dementia and previous stroke, ES requirement and mortality rate were higher in the group with low RTS score.

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