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Objectives: Emergency department (ED) visits among older adults are frequently instigated by a fall at home. Some of these patients develop intracranial bleeding. The aim of this study was to identify the incidence of intracranial bleeding and the associated clinical features in older adults who present to the ED after falling., Design: Prospective cohort study., Setting: Three Canadian EDs., Participants: A total of 2 176 patients age 65 years or older who presented to the ED with a fall were assessed, and 1753 were included. Inclusion criteria were a fall on level ground, off a bed, chair, or toilet, or from one or two steps within 48 hours., Measurements: Emergency physicians recorded predefined clinical findings on initial assessment. The primary outcome was intracranial bleeding, diagnosed either by computed tomography at the index visit or within 42 days. Associations between baseline clinical findings and the presence of intracranial bleeding were assessed with multivariable logistic regression., Results: A total of 1753 patients (median age = 82 y) were enrolled, of whom 39% were male, 35% were on antiplatelet therapy, and 25% were on an anticoagulant. The incidence of intracranial bleeding was 5.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.1-6.1). Overall, 76 patients were diagnosed at the index ED visit, and 12 were diagnosed during follow-up. Multivariable regression identified four clinical variables that were independently associated with intracranial bleeding: new abnormalities on neurologic examination (odds ratio [OR] = 4.4; 95% CI = 2.4-8.1), bruise or laceration on the head (OR = 4.3; 95% CI = 2.7-7.0), chronic kidney disease (OR = 2.4; 95% CI = 1.3-4.6), and reduced Glasgow Coma Scale from normal (OR = 1.9; 95% CI = 1.0-3.4)., Conclusion: The incidence of intracranial bleeding in our study was 5.0%. We found significant associations between intracranial bleeding and four simple clinical variables. We did not find significant associations between intracranial bleeding and antiplatelet or anticoagulant use. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:970-976, 2020., (© 2020 The American Geriatrics Society.)

Background/objectives: To determine the prevalence and severity of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (tICH) in a large cohort of older adults presenting with low-energy falls and the association with anticoagulation or antiplatelet medication., Design: Bicentric retrospective cohort analysis., Setting: Two level 1 trauma centers in Switzerland and Germany., Participants: Consecutive sample of older adults (aged ≥65 y) presenting to the emergency department (ED) over a 1-year period with low-energy falls who received cranial computed tomography (cCT) within 48 hours of ED presentation., Measurements: The prevalence and severity of tICHs was assessed and the outcomes (in-hospital mortality, admission to intensive care unit [ICU], or neurosurgical intervention) were specified. We used multivariate regression models to measure the association between anticoagulation/antiplatelet therapy and the risk for tICH after adjustment for known predictors., Results: The overall prevalence for tICH detected by cCT was 176 of 2567 (6.9%). Neurosurgical intervention was performed in 15 of 176 (8.5%) patients with tICH, 28 of 176 (15.9%) patients were admitted to the ICU, and 14 of 176 (8.0%) died in the hospital. CT-detected skull fracture and signs of injury above the clavicles were the strongest predictors for the presence of tICH (odds ratio [OR] = 4.28; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.79-6.51; OR = 1.88; 95% CI = 1.3-2.73, respectively). Among 2567 included patients, 1424 (55%) were on anticoagulation/antiplatelet therapy. Multivariate regression models showed no differences for the risk of tICH (OR = 1.05; 95% CI = .76-1.47; P = .76) or association with the head-specific Injury Severity Scale (incident rate ratio = 1.08; 95% CI = .97-1.19; P = .15) with or without anticoagulation/antiplatelet therapy., Conclusion: Medication with anticoagulants or antiplatelet agents was not associated with higher prevalence and severity of tICH in older patients with low-energy falls undergoing cCT examination. In addition to cCT-detected skull fractures, visible injuries above the clavicles were the strongest clinical predictors for tICH. Our findings merit prospective validation. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:977-982, 2020., (© 2020 The American Geriatrics Society.)

Objectives: To determine the prevalence and associated characteristics of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in elderly fallers presenting to the emergency department (ED) without focal findings., Design: Retrospective cohort study., Setting: University-affiliated teaching hospital ED., Participants: Patients aged 65 and older presenting with a fall to the ED and undergoing a head computed tomography (CT) scan., Measurements: Electronic medical records and CT scans of 404 consecutive patients were reviewed. Characteristics of patients with and without ICH were compared using unadjusted analyses. Patients taking warfarin, aspirin, or clopidogrel alone or in combination were compared with those not taking these medications. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine variables independently associated with ICH., Results: Forty-seven of 404 elderly fallers (11.6%) without focal findings had an ICH. Unadjusted analyses in these pilot data showed that warfarin was not significantly associated with ICH. Multivariate analyses indicated that elderly people living in at home were more likely to have ICH than those living in nursing homes or assisted living facilities (odds ratio (OR)=3.2, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.30-8.13) and that those with head trauma were more likely to have ICH than those without (OR=3.9, 95% CI=1.25-7.80). Aspirin was found to be protective (OR=0.49, 95% CI=0.24-0.98)., Conclusion: ICH is common in elderly fallers presenting to the ED without focal findings. Anticoagulation alone did not appear to increase the risk of ICH, and aspirin was found to be protective, but prospective studies are needed to better assess this relationship.