Acute Medicine | Medicine of the elderly | The assessment and management of falls

The Assessment and Management of Falls
Session Overview
Description
This session gives an overview of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines and discusses the medical assessment and management of falls.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Assess a patient who has presented after a fall, using a focussed history and examination
• Recognise and treat osteoporosis
• Devise a management plan to prevent future falls
• Follow the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for the assessment and management of falls

Each year in the UK there are approximately:

• 650,000 older people attending emergency departments for fall-related injuries, and
• 82,000 hip fractures

Falls cost the NHS billions of pounds, therefore preventing falls is a national priority.

People who have fallen should have a basic assessment. A multi-factorial assessment is required if the patient has an abnormal gait and balance, or if they have fallen more than once in the last 12 months.

In this session you will learn:

• How to take a history of falls
• How to examine a patient who has presented with a fall
• Which tests to request
• How to devise a management plan to prevent future falls