Fall risk and pharmacotherapy

Abstract

Maintaining postural stability in the supine position is a complex task and therefore vulnerable to disturbance by a variety of factors that may cause loss of stability and result in falls. In the elderly, as opposed to younger patients, a fall from standing or a fall while walking at low speed may end up in clinically significant incidents, namely, fractures. Typical falls in the elderly have to be distinguished from syncope, which describes a short-time loss of consciousness of sudden onset. In every fall incident, a syncope has to be ruled out as its management requires different diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms aiming at underlying cardiac diseases. Syncopes may also be provoked by drug therapy due to bradycardia, torsades, or orthostatic hypotension. In the following, we focus on typical falls in the elderly.