Elderly victims of falls admitted in intensive care: an analytical retrospective study

• Autor(a) principal: Costa,Ana Cristina Carvalho da
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Fortes,Renata Costa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ggaging.com/details/399
• topic: aged; accidental falls; wounds and injuries; intensive care units.

<p><b>OBJECTIVES:</b> To investigate the sociodemographic profile of elderly victims of trauma from falls admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a public hospital of reference and the correlation between age, comorbidities, length of stay, complications and clinical outcomes.<br> <b>METHODS:</b> Analytical retrospective study with a quantitative approach, which data collection, was performed in the ICU of the Hospital de Base do Distrito Federal (HBDF), of the Secretary of State of Health of the Distrito Federal (SES/DF) (DF), from April to October 2014. Sociodemographic information related to the mechanism of injury, comorbidities, length of stay, use of invasive devices, vasoactive drugs and sedatives, complications and clinical outcomes of elderly patients admitted for fall between July 2012 and July 2014 were collected through electronic medical record TrakCare^&reg;.<br> <b>RESULTS:</b> The sample consisted of 52 elderly, with prevalence of males and the very height fall, as the mechanism of injury. The main complications were pulmonary infection, tracheostomy due to extubation failure or prolonged intubation, septic shock, the use of blood products and acute renal failure. Despite the high mortality observed in the study, the majority of elderly survived the traumatic event and the mortality was associated with male gender, traumatic brain injury (TBI), septic shock pulmonary focus and dialysis.<br> <b>CONCLUSION:</b> The fall from height, severe head injuries and fractures showed high prevalence and most patients had more than one complication during hospitalization. There was not significant association between mortality and age.</p>