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Bathroom-Related Craniofacial Trauma Among the Elderly

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A recent Americal medical research article found that just under 10% of cranial facial truam aincidents were bathroom related. This is the first comprehensive and focused national analysis of bathroom-related cranio-facial trauma among elderly patients who present to the Emergenct Department.

Females comprised the majority (60.9%) of patients, and most patients were in their 80s and most were temporary loss of consciousness caused by or related to a sudden fall in blood pressure. This is unsurprising as it has long been known that there are more females than males in this age group.
 
Toilets facilitated a greater proportion of facial insults and were more likely to require hospital admission;the most common mechanism was “falling off. Falling off is most likely the result ofmicturition (or post-micturition) syncope. In other words, fainting during or, more commonly, immediately after urination/defaecation due to a severe drop in blood pressure. Micturition syncope is medically most reported by older men and usually occurs at night after a deep sleep.
 
Showers contributed a majority of head injuries and had a lower median age than toilet injuries. THis factor is likely due to faiting, slips, trios and falls in a hard surface area where soap dishes and the like can be particularly hazardous.
 

The authors concluded that bathroom falls result in a significant proportion of elderly traumatic injury. The trends offer the opportunity for targeted preventative measures to decrease the occurrence of these events.

Reference:

Hanba, C., et al. (2016). "Forgetful but not forgotten: Bathroom‐related craniofacial trauma among the elderly." The Laryngoscope. DOI: 10.1002/lary.26111 HTML


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