Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part F (2021)

Author(s): Dr. Jagadish B Hedawoo, Dr. Aashish Kamatham and Dr. Sanjay S Changole

Abstract: India has geriatric population of about 76.6 million over the age of 60, constituting above 7.7% of total population. A cross-sectional study on 300 cases of geriatric and non-geriatric subjects was conducted at well-established Trauma, Orthopaedic and Neurosurgical services centre in Central India. Mechanisms of injury sustained by the participants showed that Falls which include both Ground level falls (GLF) and Fall from height (>2 metres) contributed to 55.4% cases in the geriatric population. The next most common cause of trauma was the road traffic accidents (RTA) amounting to 34.3% of the cases in the geriatric population. Data on the injuries sustained in terms Abbreviated injury Scale (AIS) and Injury severity score (ISS) showed that the head region was most consistently and maximally injured in both the study populations. Comorbidity profiles of geriatric and non-geriatric trauma populations showed significantly high hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, diminished hearing and vision among the geriatric group. The maximum number of geriatric patients underwent Orthopaedic and spine surgeries (44.9%), Intercostal drain placements (34.6%), while the non-geriatric population had a higher number of Craniotomies (40%) and Intercostal drain placement (33.5%) surgeries respectively. The geriatric population had a significantly higher crude mortality rate of 39.3% compared to the non-geriatric population (26.3%). With reference to intervention procedures, the geriatric population had a lower percentage of operative intervention and a higher rate of conservative management as compared to the non-geriatric population.