Editorial

Age and Adverse Outcomes in Rib Fracture Patients

Authors: Kimball I. Maull, MD

Abstract

There are five principle determinants of outcome following serious injury: injury severity, age, pre-existing medical conditions, time from injury to definitive care, and quality of care. Increasing age increases mortality following trauma, and the only debatable point is the age at which the enhanced mortality risk becomes manifest. In the most recent study of this phenomenon, over 5,000 injured patients from Germany were reported by Kuhne et al1 They defined 56 years as the threshold from which mortality increased significantly in patients who sustained multisystem trauma, and the increased risk of death was independent of trauma severity.

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References

1. Kuhne CA, Ruchholtz S, Kaiser GM, et al. Mortality in severely injured elderly trauma patients: when does age become a risk factor? World J Surg 2005;29:1476–1482.
 
2. Testerman G. Adverse outcomes in younger rib fracture patients. South Med J 2006;99:335–339.