Low Velocity Falls and Concussion - They Are More Serious Than We Believed

October 05, 2021, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Historically low velocity/low energy falls and blows to the head were considered to be ‘less serious’ than high velocity impacts (car accidents). As our population ages though we are seeing a much higher frequency of low energy blows to the head (slip and falls) and the traumatic brain injury (TBI) burden on the healthcare system in older people.

A new study The burden of traumatic brain injury from low-energy falls among patients from 18 countries in the CENTER-TBI Registry: A comparative cohort study*

What they found:

The main study of 22,782 patients found that:

• 40% of patients with TBI were injured by low-energy falls
• Those injured through low-energy falls were older with a median age
• They were more often female
• They were more frequently taking pre-injury anticoagulants or/and platelet aggregation inhibitors and less often presenting with moderately or severely impaired conscious level (
• They had had similar in-hospital mortality versus high energy (HE) cohort of 7.0%
• The CT brain scan traumatic abnormality rate was 3% lower in the LE cohort versus HE cohort,
• Individuals in the LE cohort were 50% less likely to receive critical care or emergency interventions

Researchers noted that the main limitation of the study included a purposive sampling strategy and lack of data on patient outcomes beyond hospital discharge.

Conclusions:

1. Low energy falls contribute to a significant portion of the disease burden of concussion/TBI. As our population increases this burden will increase as well.
2. The assumption that energy transfer predicts brain injury severity and threat to life appears to be false.
3. In older individuals, factors beyond the energy transfer level may be more important in pre-hospital and emergency room triage.
4. The development of specific prevention and therapies for low energy TBI are required to reduce the burden of low energy TBI.

You can read the entire study here.

If you or a loved one has sustained a concussion or TBI in a slip and fall accident caused by someone else's negligence contact the experienced personal injury lawyers at Deutschmann Personal Injury and Disability Law today for your free initial consultation.

*Fiona E. Lecky ,Olubukola Otesile,Carl Marincowitz,Marek Majdan,Daan Nieboer,Hester F. Lingsma,Marc Maegele,Giuseppe Citerio,Nino Stocchetti,Ewout W. Steyerberg,David K. Menon,Andrew I. R. Maas,CENTER-TBI Participants and Investigators  looks at data from 18 countries and 56 trauma hospitals to compare the patient demographics, injury, care, and patient outcomes.

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Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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