[Direct sequelae of accidental falls in hospitalized geriatric psychiatry patients]

Falling is an everyday risk for elderly people, with the consequence of getting hurt. What exactly the dangers are, especially in people with gerontopsychiatric disorders, has hardly ever been mentioned in today's literature. Therefore this report deals with 887 documented fall cases in 758 gerontopsychiatric inpatients during a cumulative time period of 3845 months. The consequences of the falls according to sex and diagnosis of dementia were divided in four categories, depending on how serious the injuries were. About 65 to 71% of the patients don't show any direct consequences, about 10% have serious injuries of which 5% are fractures. There are significantly more dement women than dement men who suffer from fractures. Women over eighty years have significantly fewer serious fall injuries than women in their eighties; the same phenomenon can be observed in men concerning light injuries.