[Prevalence and features of falls of institutionalized elders].

This retrospective study seeks to check the prevalence of falls in older people from a long-term care institution for elderly people, in São Paulo, to describe the fallers and the events. We analyzed 121 medical records and 87 fall reports, between August 2006 and August 2007. There were 114 falls suffered by 45 ancians, a prevalence of 37,2%. The majority of fallers are women, average age 83,75 years. We found recurrent falls, various diagnoses and polipharmacy. The majority occurred in own height, in their bedroom, producing mainly hematomas. There is a need of implementation of fall preventive guidelines, due to the importance of this issue and its repercussions to the functional status of the institutionalized elderly.