Age differences in blunt chest trauma: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Trauma is the most common cause of presentation to hospital emergency services. After extremity and cranial injuries, blunt thoracic trauma is the third most common injury. Aim: In this study, we aimed to present and assess blunt chest trauma in adults aged below 65 and elderly (age ≥ 65). Material and methods: In this study, 130 patients (86 young (age 18-64) and 44 elderly (age ≥ 65)) who applied to the emergency department with blunt thoracic trauma between October 2017 and October 2019 were evaluated retrospectively. Results: Of the patients, 99 (76.1%) were male, and 31 (23.9%) were female. The mean age was 54.41 ±20.13 years, and the patients were between 18 and 95 years of age. The most common cause of blunt thoracic trauma in the elderly group was a fall (n = 27; 61.3%), while in-vehicle traffic accident was most common in the young group (n = 43; 50%). "Flail chest," which is observed as a complication after multiple rib fractures, was present in 1 patient in the young group and in 10 patients in the elderly group; the difference was statistically significant (p > 0.05). Seven (5.3%) patients died. The mean hospital stay was 5.1 (1-60) days, which was borderline-significantly higher in the elderly group (p = 0.056). Conclusions: Due to its life-threatening properties, the detection of blunt thorax trauma is a priority among multipletrauma patients. For this reason, an aggressive diagnosis and treatment approach is essential in the whole patient group, especially among the elderly.

Blunt Chest Trauma; Differences Between Children and Adult in Menoufia University Emergency Hospital

“…Regarding thoracic cage fracture and rib fracture, they were present in 11 adult patients (33.3%), 2 of them were flail chest in comparison with only one child (7.1%) with rib fracture and absence of flail chest. This is in accordance with Kapicibasi (8) who stated that rib fracture and flail chest were significantly more frequent in the elderly group compared to the younger patients.…”

Risk factors that predict mortality in patients with blunt chest wall trauma: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis

“…There were 50 studies of varying design and quality which investigated whether age was a risk factor for mortality in patients with blunt chest wall trauma (online supplemental file 3, table 1). Of these, 19 studies demonstrated a higher risk of mortality in patients aged 65 years or more when compared with patients aged less than 65 years 7 13–16 30–43. Other studies demonstrated that increased risk of mortality occurred in patients aged 50 years or more,17 55 years or more,44 45 60 years or more,46–50 70 years or more,51 80 years or more,52 and 90 years or more 53.…”

“…A number of studies demonstrated an increasing risk of mortality per additional year of age5 54–56 and others with an additional decade 2 14 57. In 14 studies age was not found to be a statistically significant risk factor for increased mortality,3 37 58–69 however it is worth noting that 4 of these studies used aged 45 years or more as the cut-off for increased risk 58 63 67 69…”

Chest Trauma Experience: Incidence, associated factors, and outcomes among patients in Saudi Arabia

“…9 All the studies reported that most common type of chest injuries are blunt chest trauma. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] In our study, young adults' males with a mean age of 32 years old were found to be more prone to RTA, this could be related to the legal system and regulations in Saudi Arabia, as previously prohibits women from driving. Furthermore, this could also due to most of the Saudi population belong to the younger age group and may be this group is predisposed to reckless driving behavior.…”