Caring for the critically ill patients over 80: a narrative review.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is currently no international recommendation for the admission or treatment of the critically ill older patients over 80 years of age in the intensive care unit (ICU), and there is no valid prognostic severity score that includes specific geriatric assessments.

Main body

In this review, we report recent literature focusing on older critically ill patients in order to help physicians in the multiple-step decision-making process. It is unclear under what conditions older patients may benefit from ICU admission. Consequently, there is a wide variation in triage practices, treatment intensity levels, end-of-life practices, discharge practices and frequency of geriatrician's involvement among institutions and clinicians. In this review, we discuss important steps

SUBMITTER: Guidet B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6261095 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature