02.08.2024 | IM - COMMENTARY
Overnight bridge crossing troubled waters
verfasst von:
Fulvio Morello, Paolo Bima, Roberto Presta, Mario Bo, Enrico Lupia
Erschienen in:
Internal and Emergency Medicine
|
Ausgabe 6/2024
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Excerpt
Western countries keep aging. According to Eurostat, Europeans aged ≥ 65 years have grown from 16% in 2003 to 21% in 2023. Not surprisingly, up to 30% of presentations to European Emergency Departments (EDs) are from elderly patients. The COVID-19 pandemic era has not inverted this surge. In a recent prospective study involving nine European countries, most elderly patients managed in EDs were comorbid and were more commonly evaluated for non-traumatic illnesses. Almost half of them were hospitalized, mostly to an internal medicine ward, while 9% were admitted to an intensive care unit [
1]. In several cases, the main reason for hospitalization is patient’s incident decline in frailty and dependence, exceeding the limits of available outpatient/home care networks. …