Injury
Volume 40, Issue 10 , Pages 1088-1092, October 2009

Accidental falls involving medical implant re-operation

  • Kevin L. Ong

      Affiliations

    • Exponent, Inc., 3401 Market Street, Suite 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
    • School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author at: Exponent, Inc., 3401 Market Street, Suite 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States. Tel.: +1 215 594 8874; fax: +1 215 594 8898.
    • ,
  • Edmund Lau

      Affiliations

    • Exponent, Inc., 149 Commonwealth Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States
    • ,
  • Tara Moore

      Affiliations

    • Exponent, Inc., 3401 Market Street, Suite 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
    • ,
  • Michelle F. Heller

      Affiliations

    • Exponent, Inc., 3401 Market Street, Suite 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States

Accepted 8 May 2009.

Abstract 

Implantation of medical devices is becoming more prevalent, and as a result, a greater number of patients who fall accidentally are expected to have a medical implant. The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) was used to evaluate hospital admissions following accidental falls involving re-operation of existing medical implants (hip, knee, spine, and fracture fixation) from 1990 to 2005. From 1990 to 2005, hospitalisations due to accidental falls on level surfaces increased by 306%, and hospitalisations due to falls from stairs increased by 310%. Falls involving orthopaedic revision surgery (re-operation) are relatively rare, but the incidence has increased by approximately 35%. Hospital stays after falls on level surfaces involving re-operation were 1.0 day (median) longer and cost 50% (median) more than those that did not involve re-operation in 2005. After staircase falls, hospital stays for patients undergoing re-operations were 2.0 days (median) longer and cost 108% (median) more. The greater hospital costs and hospital stay for patients needing re-operations indicate that additional medical treatment was required.

Keywords: Falls, Medical device, Nationwide Inpatient Sample, Re-operation, Injury, Stairs, Level surface

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PII: S0020-1383(09)00268-X

doi:10.1016/j.injury.2009.05.007

Injury
Volume 40, Issue 10 , Pages 1088-1092, October 2009

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