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(HealthDay News) — For geriatric trauma patients, larger volumes of geriatric trauma care are associated with improved outcomes, according to a study published online Jan. 22 in JAMA Surgery.
Kazuhide Matsushima, M.D., from Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using a statewide trauma registry for Pennsylvania to examine whether the outcomes of trauma care for geriatric patients are affected by the volume of geriatric and nongeriatric cases of an institution. Data were included for 39,431 geriatric trauma patients and 105,046 nongeriatric patients between 2001 and 2010 in 20 state-designated levels 1 and 2 trauma centers.
The researchers found that a larger volume of geriatric patients correlated significantly with decreased odds of in-hospital mortality, major complications, and failure to rescue. Higher odds of major complications in geriatric patients were significantly associated with larger nongeriatric trauma volumes.
“Higher rates of in-hospital mortality, major complications, and failure to rescue were associated with lower volumes of geriatric trauma care and paradoxically with higher volumes of trauma care for younger patients,” the authors write. “These findings offer the possibility that outcomes might be improved with differentiated pathways of care for geriatric trauma patients.”
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