Falls From Sitting to Standing

Background: When evaluating trauma patients, many centers perform computed tomography of the head, cervical spine, chest, abdomen, and pelvis, the so-called "pan-scan." Here, we evaluate the utility of pan-scan in geriatric patients who sustained ground-level falls. Study Design: We performed a retrospective review of consecutive patients from the trauma registry of a large, urban Level 1 trauma center. Inclusion criteria were registration during the 2019 calendar year, age ≥ 65, mechanism of fall from either sitting or standing, and performance of "pan-scan" at time of assessment. Patient demographics, physical exam findings, CT results, injuries, and patient disposition were recorded. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the physical exam for significant injuries were calculated.