Geriatric epidemiology of trauma in a hospital in Southern Colombia

Abstract

Objective: To describe the clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of geriatric patients who were treated at a university hospital in southern Colombia. Methods: A database of trauma patients over 65 admitted between June 2014 and December 2015 was constructed. Univariate analysis was performed. Measures of central tendency and dispersion for continuous variables were calculated. >Results: A total of 760 patients were analyzed, the median age was 74 years (65–98). The median injury severity score was 9 (4–25) the 71.97% were men, and overall mortality was 25.39%. The 92.10% was blunt trauma, and the main mechanism of injury was falls. >Conclusions: Trauma in the elderly is a common condition with high risk of mortality. It is important to know the frequency of these injuries to provide the best possible handling. In our hospital we found that geriatric trauma is a common disease, the main cause is falls without embargos traffic accidents are common in this population.

Keywords

• Trauma
• Geriatrics
• Epidemiology