ArticleAfrican journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence2025
Characteristics and outcomes of geriatric injuries presenting to an urban emergency department in Ghana.
Article in African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: The elderly population is rapidly increasing in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, their trauma care needs are often overlooked, and the epidemiology of their injuries remains poorly understood. This study aimed to describe the characteristics and outcomes of injuries in elderly patients treated at an urban emergency department (ED) in Ghana. Additionally, it aimed to identify the predictors of mortality that require focused attention. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional survey of patients ≥ 60 years presenting with traumatic injuries between November 2021 and March 2022 was conducted at the ED of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Ghana's second-largest hospital. Eligible patients were identified upon arrival in triage. Following initial resuscitation, trained research assistants obtained informed consent and collected patient data, including sociodemographic information, comorbidities, injury characteristics, and in-patient complications. Results: Of the 2242 ED patients evaluated, 101 (4.7 %) were included. The median age was 69 years and sex distribution was even. Hypertension (48.5 %) was the most prevalent comorbidity. Falls (52.5 %) and motor vehicle collisions (40.6 %) were the predominant injury mechanisms, and isolated lower extremity injuries (39.6 %) were the most common. The majority of injuries were mild (65.4 % had an Injury Severity Score < 9). Venous thromboembolism was the most common in-patient complication. Median length of stay was 6 days, but patients with complications stayed longer. The overall hospital mortality rate was 11.9 %. Predictors of mortality were triage score, admission Glasgow Coma Score, admission pulse rate and Kampala Trauma Score. Conclusion: Geriatric injuries constitute a small fraction of trauma admissions in this hospital. Triage score, Glasgow Coma Scale, pulse rate and Kampala Trauma Score predicted mortality and could form the basis for a simple screening protocol in low-resource EDs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.