RESUMEN
Objective To further improve level of severe chest trauma care in the elderly pa-tients. Methods A retrospective study was done on data of 148 elderly patients (≥65 years with se-vere chest trauma (AIS≥3 points) (elderly group) treated in Chongqing Emergency Medical Center from June 1995 to May 2005. A total of 1669 patients at age less than 65 years and with AIS≥3 points were set as control group in the same research period (control group). Results The main injury mechanism was blunt trauma, which aceouted for 83.8% (124/148) in elderly group, higher than 69.3% (1 157/ 1 669) in control group (P < 0. 01). The injury causes were mainly traffic accidents, slip and fall from a height. Traffic accidents and slip accounted for 66.2% (98/148) and 14.9% (22/148) respectively, which was significantly higher than 50.6% (845/1 669) and 3.1% (52/1 669) respectively in control group (P < 0. 01). There was no statistical difference upon ISS, RTS, GCS and prehospital time between both groups (all P value > 0.05). The fatality rate and indicence rate of complication in the elerly group were 15.5% (23/148) and 25.7% (38/148), which was significantly higher than 6.5% (108/1 669) and 10.4% (174/1 669) respectively in control group (P <0.01). The fatality rate in elderly group with complications was significantly higher than that in control group (51.7% vs 26.7%) (P < 0.01), while those without complications showed no statistical difference between two groups (6.7% :3.5%) (P >0. 05). Conclusions The patient' s age and complications are relative independent factors to es-timate the trauma care outcome. To raise risk awareness and strengthen the management of complications and supportive treatments for organ function are key to improve survival rate of the elderly patients with se-vere chest trauma.