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The Elderly Patient and the Intensive Care Unit

At least 20–50 % of all ICU admissions occur in patients older than 65 years of age, and geriatric patients account for almost 60 % of all ICU days. Unfortunately, many older patients’ final days are spent in the ICU; 40 % of Medicare patients who die are admitted to an ICU during their terminal ill...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schwartz, Steven J., Sieber, Frederick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120603/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3888-5_12
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author Schwartz, Steven J.
Sieber, Frederick
author_facet Schwartz, Steven J.
Sieber, Frederick
author_sort Schwartz, Steven J.
collection PubMed
description At least 20–50 % of all ICU admissions occur in patients older than 65 years of age, and geriatric patients account for almost 60 % of all ICU days. Unfortunately, many older patients’ final days are spent in the ICU; 40 % of Medicare patients who die are admitted to an ICU during their terminal illness, accounting for 25 % of all Medicare expenditures. Additionally, of those who survive, many are discharged to a subacute facility with persistent organ failure where they will eventually die. Furthermore, those discharged to a subacute care facility have a higher mortality rate compared to those discharged home (31 vs. 17 %). The decision to admit an elderly patient to an ICU should be based not only on their comorbidities, acuity of illness, and prehospital functional status, including quality of life, but also on their preference for the use of life-sustaining treatments if it is known. The underlying disease process is not altered despite the use of invasive procedures in terminally ill patients, and potential harm or discomfort can occur if invasive procedures are used inappropriately. To avoid such unintended consequences and enhance optimal end-of-life decision making, healthcare providers need to identify, explain, and negotiate consensus therapeutic goals.
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spelling pubmed-71206032020-04-06 The Elderly Patient and the Intensive Care Unit Schwartz, Steven J. Sieber, Frederick Manual of Geriatric Anesthesia Article At least 20–50 % of all ICU admissions occur in patients older than 65 years of age, and geriatric patients account for almost 60 % of all ICU days. Unfortunately, many older patients’ final days are spent in the ICU; 40 % of Medicare patients who die are admitted to an ICU during their terminal illness, accounting for 25 % of all Medicare expenditures. Additionally, of those who survive, many are discharged to a subacute facility with persistent organ failure where they will eventually die. Furthermore, those discharged to a subacute care facility have a higher mortality rate compared to those discharged home (31 vs. 17 %). The decision to admit an elderly patient to an ICU should be based not only on their comorbidities, acuity of illness, and prehospital functional status, including quality of life, but also on their preference for the use of life-sustaining treatments if it is known. The underlying disease process is not altered despite the use of invasive procedures in terminally ill patients, and potential harm or discomfort can occur if invasive procedures are used inappropriately. To avoid such unintended consequences and enhance optimal end-of-life decision making, healthcare providers need to identify, explain, and negotiate consensus therapeutic goals. 2012-04-14 /pmc/articles/PMC7120603/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3888-5_12 Text en © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Article
Schwartz, Steven J.
Sieber, Frederick
The Elderly Patient and the Intensive Care Unit
title The Elderly Patient and the Intensive Care Unit
title_full The Elderly Patient and the Intensive Care Unit
title_fullStr The Elderly Patient and the Intensive Care Unit
title_full_unstemmed The Elderly Patient and the Intensive Care Unit
title_short The Elderly Patient and the Intensive Care Unit
title_sort elderly patient and the intensive care unit
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120603/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3888-5_12
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