Physical abuse of the elderly: a 4-year retrospective evaluation in the emergency department.

There may be three conclusions for the current study: First, although EPA is a rare problem for patients referred to emergency services, health professionals should be suspicious when examining patients 65 years or older because of the difficulties of diagnosing EPA. Second, in patients with no history of suspicious trauma or suspicious radiological imaging results, EPA is also common. Third, because of the undetected EPA mechanism, patients should be examined forensically in suspicious cases and deaths.