Is there such a thing as a mechanical fall?

The American Journal of Emergency Medicine
Jiraporn Sri-onShan Woo Liu

Abstract

The term mechanical falls is commonly used in the emergency department (ED), yet its definition and clinical implications are not established. It may be used to attribute falls to extrinsic factors in the environment exonerating clinicians from conducting a thorough assessment of the fall's underlying intrinsic causes. We conducted this study to determine how clinicians assess "mechanical" and "nonmechanical" falls; we explored conditions, fall evaluation, and outcomes associated with these diagnoses. This study was a secondary analysis of a retrospective study at 1 urban ED. Data were obtained from medical records of patients aged 65 years and older who presented to the ED for a fall. We compared the associated conditions/causes, the ED fall evaluation, mortality, ED revisits, subsequent hospitalizations, and recurrent falls between the 2 terms. We had a sample size of 350 patients: 218 (62.3%) with "mechanical falls" and 132 (37.7%) with nonmechanical falls. There was little difference among associated conditions between the 2 fall labels other than mechanical falls had more associated environmental causes but fewer syncope causes. However, more than a quarter of nonmechanical falls had associated environmental factors as wel...Continue Reading

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Citations

Dec 2, 2017·Journal of Forensic Sciences·Samantha K RowbothamVictoria Francis
Mar 27, 2018·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·Jiraporn Sri-OnShan W Liu
May 30, 2020·The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery·Walter L BifflTala Dandan
Aug 10, 2018·Emergency Medicine Australasia : EMA·Guruprasad NagarajChristopher R Carpenter
Oct 20, 2020·JAMA Internal Medicine·Shane O'Hanlon
Mar 6, 2021·Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine·Laura C BlomaardBas de Groot

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