Falls occurred while intoxicated different from those occurring in a state of sobriety

Falls that occur while intoxicated are often associated with serious craniofacial injuries, unlike falls made in sober state which tend to affect the members.
In a study conducted between November 2001 and July 2002, doctors in the emergency department and hospital accident of Dundonald in Northern Ireland compared the wounds of patients admitted to their service, to see if there was a difference in the type and severity from those that occurred while people were drinking, and those occurred in sober individuals.

For this, they included 351 healthy adults, aged 16 to 60, who had fallen from their height and conducted a systematic review and examination, so assign a severity score on the scale of injuries.

Of all participants, 238 were placed in the group "alcohol" group and 113 in the "alcohol". A blood test designed to measure the alcohol was obtained for 47 of them, doctors reported in the journal "Emergency Medicine Journal."

In the "alcohol", they observed a higher incidence of head injuries (48% against 9%), but a lower incidence of injury to members (39% against 76%), compared to those of group "alcohol".

According to the authors, the difference between the types of injuries in the two groups was significant, as well as their severity.

In the "alcohol", the severity and type of injury were directly correlated with the level of alcohol in the blood at the time of the fall. Patients whose blood alcohol was less than 2 g / l tended to hurt in the soft tissues of the limbs (58%), those with BAC was between 2 and 2.5 g / l suffered especially fractures members, while those whose blood alcohol level exceeded 2.5 g / l is essentially wounded in the head (90%), the authors report.

These conclude that falls associated with alcohol abuse are more often associated with craniofacial as occurred in a state of sobriety injury. But regardless of the place of injury (head or member), its severity is directly related to the amount of alcohol ingested.