Analysis of non-traumatic elderly patient presentations to the emergency department [Acil servise başvuran travma dişi geriatrik olgularin demografik özelliklerinin incelenmesi]

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the demographic and clinical outcomes of elderly patients that presented to the emergency department (ED). Methods: Patients that were 65 years and older that presented to the Mersin University Medicine Faculty ED between December 1, 2011 and November 30, 2012 made up the study sample. From this pool of potential study subjects, trauma patients were excluded and then 10% of the remaining patients were randomly selected to form the final study sample. A retrospective chart review was performed. Results: A total of 949 elderly ED patients were studied of which 53.7% were between the ages of 65 to 74 years, 37.6% were 75 to 84 years, and 8.6% were 85 years and older. Compared to elderly patients that were 85 years and older, patients in the 65-74 years and 75-84 years age groups both had significantly greater usage of antiplatelet drugs (p=0.029) and medications that treat neurological disorders (p=0.014). From the ED, cardiology was the most commonly consulted at 15.2% followed by internal medicine at 13.7% and pulmonary medicine at 7.4%. Moreover, the number of consultations significantly increased with older age (p=0.003). For elderly patients that were discharged, the average length of stay in the ED was 162.7 minutes, whereas patients that were admitted into the hospital stayed in the ED over an average of 220.6 minutes (p