Geriatric trauma

The growth of the elderly population has greatly exceeded that of the remainder of the population. From 1900 to 1994, the elderly experienced an 11-fold increase, whereas the rest of the population only grew threefold [1]. Elderly patients today have an increased risk for trauma from an increasingly active life style and from impaired motor and cognitive functions. The elderly require far less mechanism to produce injuries. For all of these reasons the dramatic growth experienced in the number and severity of geriatric trauma patients can be expected to continue. The elderly often require greater health care resources than younger patients who have similar injuries. Assessing the cost/benefit ratios of aggressive testing and interventions can be much more difficult in this group. Subsequent quality of life is also a key factor in decision making. Aggressive care and resuscitation have a dramatic effect in improving outcome in these patients. Because they are more challenging in underlying risk and occult presentations and because they benefit from resuscitation, they actually deserve a more aggressive approach than younger patients who have similar mechanism during their initial emergency management.