Changing Injury Pattern in Geriatric Admissions in a Level-1 Trauma Center

The COVID-19 pandemic affected driving and activity, and therefore risk for trauma. We describe the most common injuries, falls and motor vehicle injuries (MVA), admitted to our Level-1 Trauma Center before and during the pandemic.

We retrospectively evaluated pre-pandemic with pandemic trauma admissions from January 2017 to February 2023, for patients 65 years and older, following falls and MVAs.

Of 12,098 falls and MVAs, falls occurred similarly frequently before and during the pandemic while MVA admissions declined from the pre-pandemic period. Odds for pandemic surgical and infectious complications increased 1.77 [1.11-2.80] vs 1.62 [1.02-2.59] as did LOS and 30-day mortality (mean 6.6±6.4 vs 6.2±5.8, adjusted p-value=0.0432, and 1.27[1.03-1.56] respectively). Thirty- day readmission (0.79[0.66-0.94]) decreased.

Injuries from falls and MVAs remain the commonest cause for trauma admission in older adults, with declining MVA. This informs resource utilization, and clinical focus, including fall-risk evaluation and driving assessment for older adults.