[Accidental falls among institutionalized elderly. Assessment of risks and interventions]

There is an extensive known bibliographic file which lists a multitude of risk factors in falls by the elderly in nursing homes; these include postural hypertension, walking and balance alterations, muscular weakness, cognitive and functional alterations, visual problems, etc. There is also a long list of manners to evaluate these risks and of interventions available for their treatment. This quantity of information inhibits the establishment of an effective clinical practice because it is impossible to try to identify or intervene in all of them. The objective of this article is to identify the most frequently described risk factors in the bibliographical review which the author carried out, to establish an effective form of identifying them and an efficient manner of intervention for them.