Falls, fracture and trauma

Trauma and falls in the elderly.

The number of people living longer and staying active continues to rise, resulting in an increase in the incidence of trauma-related vis-its by older persons to emergency departments. The elderly sustain a disproportionate share of fractures and serious injury, and represent a unique subset of patients with special needs and considerations. This article reviews the current literature on the man...

Next steps for falls and fracture reduction.

In July the Department of Health (DH) in England published a toolkit of resources to promote more effective services to reduce the burden of falls and fractures in older people. Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence that the present provision of falls services is suboptimal. The toolkit is part of a ‘Prevention Package’ aimed primarily at commissioners of care, in an attempt to achieve a m...

Visual impairment and risk of falls and fracture.

Osteoporosis, falls, and age in fracture of the proximal femur.

The relative importance of osteoporosis and risk of falling in causing hip fracture is not known. Femoral neck bone mass was measured in 708 elderly people, all of whom had fallen and injured a hip. Below 75 years of age there was a steep increase in relative risk of fracture with reduced bone mass, measured by Singh grade. Above that age the increase in risk was small, and neuromuscular respon...

Head trauma outcomes of verifiable falls in newborn babies.

Eleven newborn babies of normal weights sustained falls onto a hard surface in hospital. The one baby who fell from >1 m sustained clinical and radiological trauma and encephalopathy, with a skull fracture and cerebral contusion. No other baby demonstrated neurological signs despite the presence of parietal skull fractures in four of six who were x rayed; only two babies had scalp swelling. The...