Trauma in elderly people: access to the health system through pre-hospital care

documentary and retrospective study at a mobile emergency care service, using a sample of 400 elderly trauma victims selected through systematic random sampling. A form validated by experts was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistical analysis was applied. The chi-square test was used to analyze the association between the variables.

Results:

Trauma was predominant among women (52.25%) and in the age range between 60 and 69 years (38.25%), average age 74.19 years (standard deviation±10.25). Among the mechanisms, falls (56.75%) and traffic accidents (31.25%) stood out, showing a significant relation with the pre-hospital care services (p<0.001). Circulation, airway opening, cervical control and immobilization actions were the most frequent and Basic Life Support Services (87.8%) were the most used, with trauma referral hospitals as the main destination (56.7%).

Conclusion:

trauma prevailed among women, victims of falls, who received pre-hospital care through basic life support services and actions and were transported to the trauma referral hospital. It is important to reorganize pre-hospital care, avoiding overcrowded hospitals and delivering better care to elderly trauma victims.

Nursing; Pre-Hospital Care; Wounds and Injuries; Elderly

Age range	Sex	Total
	Female	Male
	n	%	n	%	n	%
60\|-\|69 years	54	25.9	99	51.9	153	38.25
70\|-\|79 years	68	32.5	52	27.2	120	30
80\|-\|89 years	57	27.3	35	18.3	92	23
90\|-\|99 years	26	12.4	4	2.1	30	7.5
100\|- years	4	1.9	1	0.5	5	1.25
Total	209	100	191	100	400	100
%	52.25	47.75	100

Trauma mechanism	Care service	Total
Trauma mechanism	BLS*	ALS†	BLS+ ALS	BLS+ Motor‡	ALS+BLS+ Motor
Falls	212	2	8	5	0	227
Falls	93.4%	0.9%	3.5%	2.2%	0%	100%
Traffic accidents	104	5	13	1	2	125
Traffic accidents	83.2%	4.0%	10.4%	0.8%	1.6%	100%
Violence	6	2	4	1	0	13
Violence	46.2%	15.4%	30.8%	7.7%	0%	100%
Burns	5	0	0	0	0	5
Burns	100%	0%	0%	0%	0%	100%
Others§	24	2	4	0	0	30
Others§	80%	6.7%	13.3%	0%	0%	100%
Total	351	11	29	7	2	400
Total	87.8%	2.8%	7.2%	1.8%	0.5%	100%
p value\|\|	<0.001

Actions	n	%
Airway opening and cervical control
	Placement of cervical collar	181	45.25
	Endotracheal intubation	07	1.75
	Total	188	47
Ventilation
	Use of bag-valve-mask	08	47	2
	Oxygen therapy (oxygen mask/nasal catheter)	34	8.5
	Total	43	10.75
Circulation
	Compressive dressing	72	10.75	18
	Peripheral venous access	78	19.50
	Volemic replacement	96	23.25
	Cardiopulmonary reanimation	05	1.25
	Total	251	62.75
Neurological dysfunction assessment
	Glasgow coma scale	148	62.75	37
	Total	148	37
Immobilization
	Limb immobilization	50	37	12.25
	Use of rigid board	138	34.50
	Total	188	47
Destination
	Referral trauma hospital	227	47	56.7
	Public hospitals	77	19.2
	Private hospitals	61	15.3
	Kept in same place	35	8.8
	Total	400	100.0

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E-mail: rlae@eerp.usp.br

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[1] Corresponding Author: Hilderjane Carla da Silva Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte Departamento de Enfermagem Av. Senador Salgado Filho, 3000 Bairro: Lagoa Nova CEP: 59078-970, Natal, RN, Brasil E-mail: hilderjanecarla@hotmail.com

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Trauma in elderly people: access to the health system through pre-hospital care1 1 Paper extracted from master's thesis "Trauma in elderly patients by the mobile pre-hospital service", presented to Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.

Objective:

Method:

Results:

Conclusion:

Trauma in elderly people: access to the health system through pre-hospital care¹ 1 Paper extracted from master's thesis "Trauma in elderly patients by the mobile pre-hospital service", presented to Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.