FORENSIC TRAUMATIC CASES IN THE GERIATRIC POPULATION

Özet

Introduction: Physiological and metabolic changes arising in elderliness mayincrease the risk of trauma. The causes of trauma and trauma severity may vary withage. We aimed to determine the causes of trauma, traumatic lesions, and permanentdamage status in the geriatric population by analyzing forensic trauma cases.Materials and Method: Subjects were randomly selected from patients aged≥65 years whose forensic evaluation was performed at the department of forensicmedicine. The sample size was determined with Epi-Info version 7 software. SPSSWindows 20.0 software was used to analyze the data.Results: Of the patients, 68.9% were male and 31.1% were female, with a meanage of 72.8 ± 6.11 years. Among them, 53.8% and 46.2% were exposed to traumadue to non-accidental causes and an accident, respectively. Such accidental injuriesmost commonly occurred due to traffic accidents (78%) and falls (16.7%), whereasnon-accidental injuries most commonly occurred due to intentional injuries (96.1%).Accidental and non-accidental injuries were most commonly seen in females andmales, respectively. The injury severity score was higher for accidental injuries.Minor and major injuries were observed in 95.1% and 4.9% patients, respectively,according to the injury severity score. Of the major injuries, 42.9% were in the headand neck region.Conclusion: According to our results, non-accidental traumas in the geriatricpopulation are similar to those in other age groups, whereas injuries due to fallsincrease in the former with a decrease in physiological reserves. Trauma severityappears to be more severe in accidental injuries.