Geriatric Cervical Spine Injury

Excerpt

According to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, there are 12 injury-related emergency department visits for every 100 persons over the age of 65 annually. Geriatric patients account for a quarter of trauma admissions nationally. Cervical spine injuries are relatively common in the elderly population. These injuries are associated with high morbidity and mortality rates.

The percentage of elderly patients with trauma has been on the rise and will continue to increase into the ensuing decades. Clinicians are cautioned to maintain a heightened index of clinical suspicion to rule out cervical pathology even in the setting of low-energy mechanisms of injury, for example, ground level falls. Often geriatric traumas present with confounding variables such as baseline dementia, auditory and visual impairment, and inherent difficulty when cooperating with the acute physical examination.