New Jersey residents with elderly parents may be interested in a study conducted in Finland. Researchers in Helsinki found that survival from brain injuries in the elderly might be influenced by a variety of events, including whether the patient was conscious when he or she arrived at the hospital or if the individual took anticoagulants. The conclusion is that a decision to not perform surgery based upon the advanced age of the patient might be shortsighted.
The study was conducted on serious subdural hematomas. Although this condition is generally treated in younger patients through neurosurgery, the rate of success in the elderly may be poorer because many elderly patients are taking anticoagulants. However, younger patients also commonly have a risk of morbidity and mortality despite treatment for the condition.
Helsinki University neurosurgeons treat the elderly, those who are 75 years of age or older, by using surgery for subdural hematomas. The difference in prognosis reportedly depends on the patient’s condition and medication with anticoagulants. Reportedly, following surgery, those patients who arrived unconscious, lacked an independent lifestyle or took anticoagulants survived for no more than one year following post-surgical intervention. However, independent elderly individuals who did not take anticoagulants and were conscious recovered and lived a life span that matched their contemporaries. Overall, a good proportion of patients recovered after neurosurgery for an isolated hematoma without concomitant brain tissue injury and returned to their previous lives. One of the study’s main authors stressed that a small number of subjects were included in the study.
Although many people suffer a head injury as a result of a fall, these types of injuries can also be the result of a car accident. A person whose injury was the result of another driver’s negligence may want to meet with a personal injury attorney to determine the best method of seeking compensation for the damages that have been incurred.
