2009 Faculty Researchers

Brett Crist, MD

Retrospective Review of Age versus Orthopaedic Trauma Outcome

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Co-Sponsors

Greg Della Rocca, MD, PhD
Yvonne Murtha, MD

Department

Orthopaedic Surgery

Office Location

213 McHaney Hall

Phone #:

Office: (573) 882-6562

E-mail

ellebrachtt@health.missouri.edu

Summary

The goal of the project will be determine if age affects the mechanism of injury, type and severity of injuries, number of complications, and outcomes of orthopaedic trauma patients. Approximately 600 patients that were admitted as general surgery trauma patients in the past year were greater than 55 years old. A trend has been noticed that these patients typically have a higher number of medical comorbidities, more systems injured, and a lower physiological reserve that affects their survival and complication rates, length of stay, and outcomes. As a larger segment of our country’s population has moved into this age group, this will be a huge burden on resources and new protocols may need to be developed to address the particular issues that this population brings. For example, poorer bone quality in elderly individuals has led to specific orthopaedic implants and methods to improve fixation in an attempt to avoid complications.

The student involved in the project will be responsible for literature review, and a retrospective review of the charts of those patients who were admitted to University Hospital and classified as a level 1, 2, or 3 trauma patient that also had an orthopaedic injury over the last three years. They will be responsible for submitting an IRB to review these patient records prior to starting the summer program. The variables that will be evaluated include—age, mechanism of injury, medical comorbidities, injuries, injury severity score, complications, and final outcome if available. The goal by the end of the summer is to have at least the data review complete and an initial manuscript started. If the manuscript is not completed, we will continue to work with the student to complete the project. The student will work closely with the three orthopaedic attending listed above throughout this project as well as our research nurse Linda Anderson.