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Border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a South Texas trauma center

OBJECTIVES: Falling from height may lead to significant injuries and time hospitalized; however, there are few studies comparing the specific mechanism of fall. The purpose of this study was to compare injuries from falls after attempting to cross the USA-Mexico border fence (intentional) with injur...

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Autores principales: Darwish, Muhammad, McGraw, Constance, Foote, Christopher W, Chen, Chaoyang, Sohini, Vidhur, Bar-Or, David, Palacio, Carlos H
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9980355/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36875918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2022-001020
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author Darwish, Muhammad
McGraw, Constance
Foote, Christopher W
Chen, Chaoyang
Sohini, Vidhur
Bar-Or, David
Palacio, Carlos H
author_facet Darwish, Muhammad
McGraw, Constance
Foote, Christopher W
Chen, Chaoyang
Sohini, Vidhur
Bar-Or, David
Palacio, Carlos H
author_sort Darwish, Muhammad
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: Falling from height may lead to significant injuries and time hospitalized; however, there are few studies comparing the specific mechanism of fall. The purpose of this study was to compare injuries from falls after attempting to cross the USA-Mexico border fence (intentional) with injuries from domestic falls (unintentional) of comparable height. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included all patients admitted after a fall from a height of 15–30 ft to a level II trauma center between April 2014 and November 2019. Patient characteristics were compared by falls from the border fence with those who fell domestically. Fisher’s exact test, χ(2) test and Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney U test were used as appropriate. A significance level of α<0.05 was used. RESULTS: Of the 124 patients included, 64 (52%) were falls from the border fence while 60 (48%) were domestic falls. Patients sustaining injuries from border falls were on average younger than patients who had domestic falls (32.6 (10) vs 40.0 (16), p=0.002), more likely males (58% vs 41%, p<0.001), fell from a significantly higher distance (20 (20–25) vs 16.5 (15–25), p<0.001), and had a significantly lower median injury severity score (ISS) (5 (4–10) vs 9 (5–16.5), p=0.001). Additionally, compared with domestic falls, border falls had fewer injuries to the head (3% vs 25%, p=0.004) and chest (5% vs 27%, p=0.007), yet more extremity injuries (73% vs 42%, p=0.003), and less had an intensive care unit (ICU) stay (30% vs 63%, p=0.002). No significant differences in mortality were found. CONCLUSION: Patients sustaining injuries from border crossing falls were slightly younger, and although fell from higher, had a lower ISS, more extremity injuries, and fewer were admitted to the ICU compared with patients sustaining falls domestically. There was no difference in mortality between groups. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective study.
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spelling pubmed-99803552023-03-03 Border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a South Texas trauma center Darwish, Muhammad McGraw, Constance Foote, Christopher W Chen, Chaoyang Sohini, Vidhur Bar-Or, David Palacio, Carlos H Trauma Surg Acute Care Open Brief Report OBJECTIVES: Falling from height may lead to significant injuries and time hospitalized; however, there are few studies comparing the specific mechanism of fall. The purpose of this study was to compare injuries from falls after attempting to cross the USA-Mexico border fence (intentional) with injuries from domestic falls (unintentional) of comparable height. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included all patients admitted after a fall from a height of 15–30 ft to a level II trauma center between April 2014 and November 2019. Patient characteristics were compared by falls from the border fence with those who fell domestically. Fisher’s exact test, χ(2) test and Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney U test were used as appropriate. A significance level of α<0.05 was used. RESULTS: Of the 124 patients included, 64 (52%) were falls from the border fence while 60 (48%) were domestic falls. Patients sustaining injuries from border falls were on average younger than patients who had domestic falls (32.6 (10) vs 40.0 (16), p=0.002), more likely males (58% vs 41%, p<0.001), fell from a significantly higher distance (20 (20–25) vs 16.5 (15–25), p<0.001), and had a significantly lower median injury severity score (ISS) (5 (4–10) vs 9 (5–16.5), p=0.001). Additionally, compared with domestic falls, border falls had fewer injuries to the head (3% vs 25%, p=0.004) and chest (5% vs 27%, p=0.007), yet more extremity injuries (73% vs 42%, p=0.003), and less had an intensive care unit (ICU) stay (30% vs 63%, p=0.002). No significant differences in mortality were found. CONCLUSION: Patients sustaining injuries from border crossing falls were slightly younger, and although fell from higher, had a lower ISS, more extremity injuries, and fewer were admitted to the ICU compared with patients sustaining falls domestically. There was no difference in mortality between groups. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective study. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-02-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9980355/ /pubmed/36875918 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2022-001020 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Brief Report
Darwish, Muhammad
McGraw, Constance
Foote, Christopher W
Chen, Chaoyang
Sohini, Vidhur
Bar-Or, David
Palacio, Carlos H
Border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a South Texas trauma center
title Border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a South Texas trauma center
title_full Border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a South Texas trauma center
title_fullStr Border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a South Texas trauma center
title_full_unstemmed Border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a South Texas trauma center
title_short Border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a South Texas trauma center
title_sort border-fence falls versus domestic falls at a south texas trauma center
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9980355/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36875918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2022-001020
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