A Clinical Review of Geriatric Patients With Rib Fractures Seen in an Emergency Department |
Su Bin Oh, Tae Young Seong, Sang Hyun Park, Gwang Pil Rim, Keun Hong Park, Hahn Bom Kim |
1Department of Emergency Medicine, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. hahnbom@daum.net 2Department of Emergency Medicine, St. Carollo Hospital, Suncheon, Korea. |
응급실에 내원한 노인 늑골 골절 환자에 대한 임상적 고찰 |
오수빈1⦁성태영1⦁박상현1⦁임광필2⦁박근홍1⦁김한범1 |
서울의료원 응급의학과1, 성가롤로병원 응급의학과2 |
|
Abstract |
BACKGROUND Almost every study of rib fractures in the elderly show associated injuries resulting in admission to thoracic or cardiovascular surgery. In Korea, no studies have compared these elderly patients with younger patients. METHODS This study is based on patients who were diagnosed as having rib fracture at the Emergency Department of the Seoul Medical Center from March 2013 to April 2011. The medical records and radiological examinations of 192 cases were reviewed. Two groups were created-older than 65 years and younger than 64 years. Comparisons were made between the two groups including place of injury, time of injury, associated injuries, and the final result in the Emergency Department. RESULTS The final patient sample size was 192. The elderly group had 142 patients with the average age being 48.77+/-9.70 years and 75.4% males. The young group had 50 patients with the average age at 75.90+/-7.21 years and 25% males. The most common place of injury was road (p=0.007) in the young group and home (p=0.002) in the elderly group. The most common mechanisms of injury were slipping (47.4%), traffic accidents (18.2%), falling (14.1%), and assault (9.4%). Falling was more prevalent in the young group than in the elderly group (p=0.011). Rib fractures occurred at night (p<0.001), on Saturdays, on Sundays, and in the winter in the young group and in the morning(p=0.002), on Mondays, on Fridays, and in the winter in the elderly group. Associated injuries, in descending order, were chest, limb, head, and spine. CONCLUSION This study found that several selected factors of an injury-place, mechanism, time, and associated injuries, differ by age. |
Key Words:
Geriatric, Rib fracture, Emergency department |
|