Falls
description
Transcript of Falls
Falls
Dr. Fiona ShawConsultant Geriatrician
Rehabilitation and Intermediate Care Services
Overview Background Evidence Risk factors and causes of falls GP interventions Orthostatic hypotension Case Services - current Proposed service improvements New guidelines etc. Websites
Background Less than 1 in 50 older people recorded as
having a high risk of falling has a recorded referral to a falls service or exercise programme
….in part due to not entering data…. ….workload of falls services would increase
substantially……
QRESEARCHEvaluation of standards of care for osteoporosis and falls in primary care, 2007
Local background
35 – 65 % fall pa
5% fracture
Fractures in A&E:
Fallers seen by services:
14, 525 – 24,900
726 – 1245
1710 (age > 50)
1500
Newcastle population age > 65 = 41,500
Actual figures 2007
Reactions?
a Oh gosh! I must refer more patients to falls clinics
b The falls services couldn’t possibly cope with those numbers – don’t be silly!
c I would refer more patients with falls if there were more appropriate services
d There’s no evidence for falls clinics so why would I waste money sending more patients there?
Falls clinics – negative press ‘The evidence indicates falls clinics have negligible
clinical effect’ Scoping exercise on fallers clinics SDO 2008 Actually didn’t have data to comment
BMJ article ‘Multifactorial falls assessment and intervention’ Lamb et al 2008 Only 6 of 19 trials were of multifactorial assessment and
intervention ‘High intensity interventions’ successful Contrast Campbell and Robertson 2007 and Chang
et al 2004 and NICE 2004
What is the evidence? Good evidence:
Multi-factorial assessment and intervention provided by MDT
Targeted strength and balance exercise (community populations)
Some evidence Home hazard assessment alone Medication review alone Correction of visual impairment alone
Multifactorial assessment and intervention Assessments and interventions delivered by MDT:
Campbell 2007: 6 RCTs: RR 0.78 (0.68 – 0.89) Chang 2004: 8 RCTs: RR 0.82 (0.72 – 0.94) Gates 2008: higher intensity int: RR 0.84 (0.74 – 0.96) Chang 2004: falls / month: 0.63 (0.49 – 0.83) Chang 2004: NNT to prevent 1 person falling/year = 11
There is lots of evidence to support multifactorial assessment and intervention delivered by a multidisciplinary team
What should be included?
Medication review Orthostatic blood pressure Gait, balance, strength Environmental hazards Vision Cardiovascular Education
Research base:
Agrees with NICE – added a few more
Targeted balance and strength exercises Meta-analyses:
Chang 2004: 13 RCTs: RR 0.86 (0.75 – 0.99) Gillespie 2003: RR 0.80 (0.66 – 0.98)
Individual result (FaME, Skelton 2005): 30% reduction in falls over 18 months 32% reduction in death or move to institutional care
at 3 years
Again good evidence to support targeted balance and strength exercises as per NICE
So in summary….
multifactorial assessment and intervention delivered by MDT
and
targeted strength and balance exercises in community populations as a single intervention
Robust evidence to support:
Risk factors & causes of falls
How many can you name in 2 minutes?
Risk factors & causes of falls General medical problems
e.g. UTI, anaemia Visual impairment Medication Depression Specific diagnoses e.g.
Parkinson’s Stroke Cognitive impairment /
dementia Gait and balance
impairments Muscle weakness Inappropriate footwear Inappropriate aids Feet Environment
Low blood pressure Orthostatic hypotension Vasovagal syncope CSH Cardiac arrhythmia Drop attacks BPPV Acute vestibular problems Cerebrovascular disease Epilepsy Narcolepsy Vertebrobasilar insufficiency Psychogenic etc…..
What should the GP be doing?
Your views?
What do I think the GP should be doing? Looking for underlying general medical
problems – UTI, chest infection, anaemia, malignancy, etc
Checking for injuries Reviewing medication – esp recent changes Checking pulse, BP, orthostatic hypotension Assessing (briefly) mobility, gait and balance Thinking about osteoporosis Looking at others issues e.g. safety at home Referring to falls services
Measuring orthostatic blood pressure
What’s the physiology?How do you do it?
Orthostatic hypotension Mechanism – venous pooling on standing Contributing mechanisms – impaired heart rate
response, volume depletion, impaired cerebral circulation and autoregulation, medication, other diseases
Result: Falls or Syncope
Measurement GP: LYING (10 mins!?) and standing at / within 2 minutes, should be in the morning
Measurement Falls Clinic: 10 minutessupine rest, beat to beat blood pressurereading recording at 30 secs, 1 min, 90 secs, 2 mins, in the morning
Falls case
Female – 88 years old – independent 2 falls – tripped on paving stones Lightheaded but Bp 160/70, no postural drop PMH – MI 1998
Medications: Atenolol 50mg od, Aspirin 75mg od, Lisinopril 10 mg od, Zopiclone 7.5 mg nocte
What did we do for our initial assessment? What did we find?
Falls case History – lightheaded esp mornings, standing
quickly, up from bending Exam – unsteady initial standing, blind L eye
Bloods – normal 12 lead ECG – SR 62 / min (rate 48 / min 2007) Active stand – No OH DXA – osteoporosis – treatment commenced Physio
Do we need to do anything else?
Falls case 24 hour ECG SR 51 - 82
24 hour Bp
Lisinopril stopped (kept Atenolol – not too bradycardic, previous MI, good history OH)
If the history is good,think of OH and low BPin spite of surgery readings
Beware white coat hypertension
Current falls services
Falls and Syncope Service, RVI Belsay and Melville Day Hospitals, NGH & FRH Community Resources Teams (North, East, West) Osteoporosis Service, FRH
Who do we want to see?
3 or more falls in past year 1 or 2 falls and unsteady walking Unsteady walking and other risk factor – inc 4
or more medications Fall presenting to medical attention
What can you expect?
Multifactorial falls assessment and interventionHx, Ex, ECG, AS, OPx, PT
FASSProlonged cardiac & Bp monitoring
CSM, HUTSpecialist vestibular
OTDay Hospital / CRT
for MDT
Day HospitalsProlonged cardiac& Bp monitoringBasic vestibularVestibular rehab
Full MDTFalls Groups
FASS for CSM / HUT
CRTMDT at home
Day Hospital for other
Interventions provided Medication changes Physio gait, balance and strength exercises Treatment for OH General medical Podiatry OT Treatment for VVS Vestibular rehabilitation Driving advice SW PPM (via cardiology) – CSH, bradyarrhythmia Psychiatry (psychology) referral Referral to: ENT, neurology, specialist bone, ophthalmology
Proposed service improvements
Expand referral criteria – any fall (or blackout) Simplify referral mechanism – FAB hotline Fill some gaps - Staying Steady exercise groups
CommFASS Joint standards of working across all services and
more explicit joint working Expansion and better profile for existing services DXA scanning West of City (Belsay) Improved links with others – orthopaedics, ENT,
A&E
New guidelines etc.
A new ambition for old age (2006)
To extend initiatives to improve exercise, balance, medicines management & footwear
To improve emergency response To have a falls assessment service for people
with recurrent falls To increase capacity in osteoporosis To improve rehabilitation services for people
who have lost functional ability or confidence after a fall
RCP Falls & Bone Health (2007)
Most patients returning from A&E after a low impact fracture were not offered multidisciplinary falls risk assessment
Only 22% were referred for exercise training After 3 months only 20% on appropriate treatment for
osteoporosis
For the minority of patients who attended a falls clinic, falls and fracture risk assessments and treatments were better
www.rcplondon.ac.uk
Useful web links www.shef.ac.uk/FRAX www.helptheaged.org.uk
www.rcplondon.ac.uk www.ic.nhs.uk
www.profane.eu.org