الفهرس 
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Abstract
Elderly injuries have become nowadays the scope of many studies worldwide. The demand of studying characteristics of elderly patients is dominated by the rapid growth in the aging population and the limited studies applied on them.
Conventionally, “elderly” has been defined as a chronological age of 65 years old or older.
Trauma is the fifth leading cause of death in persons more than 65 years of age. The elderly suffer the same types of injury as younger patients but with more complications, higher mortality, longer lengths of hospital stay and poorer outcomes.
The present study aimed to study the characteristics, incidence, pattern, risk factors, severity, prognosis and outcome of injuries among elderly trauma patients aged 65 years and more who were admitted to the Emergency Department of Alexandria Main University Hospital during the period from the first of July till the end of December 2013.
A total number of 104 elderly patients were admitted to the ED representing 1.96 % of the total admissions of trauma patients from all age groups.
This study revealed the following results:
Age of the patients ranged from 65 to 90 years old with a mean age of 72.15 ± 7.0 years. The highest percentage of patients was in the age group 65-70 (53.8%).There was male predominance (53.8%) while females represented (46.2%) with a ratio 1.67:1.
Nearly one third of the patients (32.7%) have diabetes mellitus (DM). History of hypertension was given by another one third of patients (33.7%), 12.5% have cardiac disease, while nearly one third of patients (32.7%) had no history of chronic illness.
The majority of patients (82.7%) had no previous injuries, 11 patients (10.6%) had previous accidents, six patients (5.8%) were previously assaulted, and only one victim (1%) attempted suicide.
Ninety one elderly patients (87.5%) had no disability for daily activities while only 13 patients (12.5%) had some degree of disability before getting injured.
The highest percentage of admission (21.2 %) was on October followed by September and December (18.3% each). Outdoor injuries were encountered in 60.6% of patients, while 39.4% of them were injured indoors.
More than two thirds of studied cases (80.8%) were injured accidentally, while the remaining (19.2%) were non-accidentally injured (assaulted except for only one patient who attempted suicide).
Falls took the upper hand (46.8%) in causing elderly injuries followed by motor vehicle accidents (30.8%). Other causes were hitting by a blunt instrument (8.3%), scalds (4.8%), firearms and dry flame (3.8% for each), stabs and cuts (1.9% each).
The most commonly injured sites were lower limbs (50%), upper limbs (42.3%) and head (41.3%). The least frequently injured sites were pelvis (4.8%) and neck (1.9%).
Contusions encountered in 48.1% of patients, followed by fractures and contused wounds (40.4% and 38.5% respectively), internal injury (34.8%) and the least observed type of injury was stab and cut wounds (1.9% each).
The probability of survival (Ps) calculated with TRISS in those patients ranged from 0.3% to 99.7% with a mean value of 89.41 ± 25.71.
Patients in the age group (65 - 70 years) had the highest mean value of Ps calculated with TRISS (94.27±16.12). However, there was no statistically significant relation between Ps calculated with TRISS and age.
The highest mean value of Ps calculated with TRISS was noticed with injuries of upper limbs (91.06%), followed by lower limbs and back injuries (83.76% and 83.79% respectively) while the lowest mean values were noticed with neck and pelvis injuries (51.5% and 45.84% respectively). Yet, there was no statistically significant relation between Ps calculated by TRISS and site of injury.
The highest mean value of Ps calculated with TRISS was associated with cut wounds, scalds, and stab wounds (99.55%, 99.5%, and 99.4% respectively) while victims of burns had the lowest mean value (41.5%). There was a statistically significant relation between TRISS values and the type of injury.
Laboratory investigations that were routinely applied to these patients included; complete blood count, arterial blood gases, renal function tests, liver function tests and random blood sugar. Radiological investigations (X-ray, CT, and ultrasound) were applied depending on the injured site.
As regards the treatment offered to those patients after admission; 57 patients (54.8%) were treated conservatively while 45 of patients (43.3%) were undergone operative treatment. Only 2 patients (1.9%) didn’t complete their treatment as they escaped against medical advice.