Penetrating trauma in patients older than 55 years: a case-control study

Penetrating torso injuries in older adults: increased mortality likely due to “failure to rescue”

“…In this study 79 older patients were matched one-to-one with a younger cohort, an age cut off of 55 for inclusion as elderly and included primarily minimally or moderately injured patients who had an average ISS of 12. Importantly, ISS between the cohorts was similar and the number of brain injuries was ten in the younger group and eight in the older group [12]. Organ specific injuries between the groups were extremely similar.…”

“…Few comprehensive studies of penetrating trauma in older adults have been published [10][11][12][13]. The current study is the largest and one of few, to our knowledge, to specifically address the issue of potentially survivable penetrating torso injuries and associated outcomes.…”

“…Only two published studies have contended that age is not an independent predictor of mortality in trauma and both studies were among the very few reviewing only penetrating insults in the elderly [12,13]. Roth et al [12] concluded that age upon trauma admission was related to longer ICU and hospital lengths of stay but not to differences in mortality.…”

“…Roth et al [12] concluded that age upon trauma admission was related to longer ICU and hospital lengths of stay but not to differences in mortality. In this study 79 older patients were matched one-to-one with a younger cohort, an age cut off of 55 for inclusion as elderly and included primarily minimally or moderately injured patients who had an average ISS of 12.…”

“…Organ specific injuries between the groups were extremely similar. Roth et al [12] did not exclude by high or low AIS, however Additionally, Nagy et al [13] studied penetrating trauma in 85 older adults. They concluded that while hospital stay and co-morbidities were higher in the geriatric population, the likelihood of experiencing one or more complications, including death, was not.…”