Evaluación geriátrica del anciano en Unidad de Cuidado Intensivo

Abstract

The number of elderly patients who require admission to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been increasing in recent years. This situation has led to the intensivist having to deal with a group of patients having special and unique characteristics, as well as a number of needs which must be met from a geriatric point of view in order to have an impact on any outcome. The aim of this here paper is to review the updated evidence available as regards the multidimensional geriatric assessment of critically ill elderly patients be it in the ICU or in the Emergency Department. The aim is also to provide an easily available document to be taken as reference for evaluations of a practical nature, and from a globally accepted multidimensional point of view, to be a point of reference for the future. Implementation of updated guidelines relating specifically to multidimensional geriatric evaluation emphasising a multidisciplinary approach including, not only the intensive care specialist, but also the attending geriatricians. An extensive review has been carried out on the updated literature in all types of databases (OvidSP, PubMed, Science Direct, EMBASE and Springer). Articles were chosen that were related to evaluation of the geriatric population in the intensive care setting. Based on the data collected, a protocol of comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is presented, concluding that it takes into account different aspects that are not evaluated in commonly applied scales within the ICU. Such aspects must be considered when admitting elderly patients into the ICU, particularly if it is considered that these aspects are very important to define goals and moreover to define prognosis.