Falls downstairs: The impact on a UK major trauma centre

Abstract

Introduction: Major trauma centres are increasingly managing a significant injury burden in older patients, with falling downstairs being a prevalent mechanism of injury. Literature evaluating the impact of falls on stairs upon UK trauma networks is limited. Gaining a greater understanding of this may allow for more effective planning of services and improvements in training and education. This study evaluates the impact of falls downstairs on a UK major trauma centre. Methods: A single centre retrospective service evaluation of local major trauma data over a 3-year period from 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2019. Included were patients who activated a trauma call whose mechanism of injury recorded at the time of admission was a fall downstairs. We excluded patients less than 16 years of age. Results: There were 4480 major trauma patients who presented in the study period and of these, 860 (19.2%) sustained injuries following a fall downstairs. The most common age group presenting was 70–79 years; younger patients (<60 years) made up 43.3% with the majority (56.7%) being older. All but one patient were managed by a consultant-led trauma team, 6.4% of patients were admitted to critical care and 1% received an urgent operation. The overall mortality rate was 8.5%. Older patients made up 85% of those who died and had nearly four times longer average length of stay than younger patients (9.69 v 2.49 days). Conclusion: Falls downstairs place a significant burden on the major trauma centre. There is a stark contrast in the use of hospital resources and outcomes between older and younger patients.