South East Scotland Major Trauma Guidelines
- Elderly patients should receive the same trauma care following admission to that given to younger patients.
- Advanced age is not an absolute predictor of poor outcomes following trauma and should not be used as the sole criterion for denying or limiting care.
- An initial aggressive approach should be pursued for management of the elderly patient unless in the judgement of an experienced consultant it seems the injury burden is severe and the patient appears moribund.
Silver trauma
Warning
- Elderly patients can experience significant injury in spite of a trivial mechanism of injury.
- The physiologic response is different to younger patients.
- Under triage by ambulance staff and ED staff double the risk of death.
- Consider a trauma team activation for all patients aged 65 or more with pre-existing medical conditions.
