Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is strongly age-dependent, and with a growing geriatric population, the incidence and prevalence of AF is expected to increase in the United States. As a result, the number of patients at risk of a thromboembolic event due to AF is also expected to increase. Although bleeding associated with mechanical falls is [...]

Background: The growth of oral muscle relaxant prescriptions among older adults in the U.S. raises safety concern. Baclofen is a commonly used gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist muscle relaxant that is associated with encephalopathy. We aimed to compare the risk of fall and fracture associated with oral baclofen against other muscle relaxants (tizanidine or cyclobenzaprine) in [...]

Background: Aging is associated with increased prevalence of atrial fibrillation and thrombophlebitis. Anticoagulation has been shown to be effective in preventing thromboembolic events in AF patients and treatment of thrombophlebitis. Non-vitamin k antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) have been shown to be non-inferior or even superior to warfarin for long-term stroke prevention and thrombophlebitis treatment. In [...]

Background: Falls are the most common cause of nonfatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults. The objective of this study was to determine whether the quarantine/lockdown elicited by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic led to a change in the incidence of falls in geriatric patients between March 2020 – December 2020 compared to March 2019 – December [...]

Background: Infectious disease-related factors that may contribute to or complicate falls have received relatively little attention in the literature. Specifically, the prevalence of coexisting systemic infections (CSIs) in patients presenting with a fall and admitted to the hospital has not been previously reported. We, herein, describe the scope and characteristics of CSIs in hospitalized patients [...]

Background: We conducted a pilot study in an acute care hospital and developed the Saga Fall Risk Model 2 (SFRM2), a fall prediction model comprising eight items: Bedriddenness rank, age, sex, emergency admission, admission to the neurosurgery department, history of falls, independence of eating, and use of hypnotics. Bedriddenness rank is an official scale of [...]

Background: Delirium is a neuropsychiatric syndrome that can occur in hospitalized patients. The negative impact that delirium has on the patient and the health system are well described and include increased mortality, risk of falls, length of stay and overall healthcare utilization. Delirium can have a heterogenous presentation including hyperactivity with agitation, restlessness and psychosis [...]

Background: Hospitalized patients have significantly reduced ambulation, which leads to decreased muscle strength, coordination, and balance, all which increase the risk of falls. According to the Joint Commission, hundreds of thousands of patients fall in hospitals every year, resulting in injury in 30% to 50% of cases. Serious injuries, such as fractures, subdural hematomas, excessive [...]

Background: Falls are associated with significant morbidity and increased healthcare expenses for hospitalized patients. There are hundreds of thousands of inpatient falls every year. There are multiple validated scores to guide the need of imaging for patients presenting to ED after, but no such score exists for hospitalized patients who suffer a fall event. This [...]

Background: Fall for hospitalized patients can cause significant injury and have devastating long term consequences for patients with 33% resulting in injury, 4-6% causing serious injury (1). Information is available regarding risk factors for falls and specific patient or nursing centric interventions to prevent falls, but there is little known about the physician perspective in [...]