OVERVIEW OF DISEASES IN AGING: GERIATRIC SYNDROMES

There are a number of elements characteristic of geriatric disease processes that determine the specificity of the care and nursing professionals should be aware.

Nursing is the professional who spends more hours with patients, so you must constantly evaluate the patient, we should not overlook the elderly complaints manifest by the fact that only are elderly.

The concept of geriatric syndrome is relatively recent, as this terminology was first used in the late 60s. At first, under the name of geriatric syndromes referred to features that had more frequently the elderly hospitalized in Geriatrics, compared to other services. Currently, this term is used to refer to a set of tables, caused by the combination of a number of diseases that reach a large prevalence in elderly patients, and are common origin or social functional disability.

Geriatric syndromes are superbly defined by Kane, in 1989 in his book Essentials of Clinical Geriatrics and geriatric problems, allowing through a mnemonic memorization by the rule of the "i´s":

Immobility

Inestability

Incontinence

Intellectual impairment

Infection

Inanition

Impairment of vision and hearing

Irritable colon

Isolation

Iatrogenesis

Immune deficiency

Impotence

PAIN

Eva Scale, to evaluate de pain:

When I started studying nursing I didný t know the pain could be measured. I thought it was something purely subjective. With this scale we can assess the level of pain suffered by the patient at that time to take steps to prespecto. It consists of a straight line, horizontal or vertical 10 cm, their ends are delimited expressing marks: no pain and worst pain possible or imaginable.

DEPRESSION

Depression is known as "the grand masked geriatric patients". Late-life events such as chronic and debilitating medical disorders, loss of friends and loved ones and the inability to take part in once-cherished activities can take a heavy toll on an aging person's emotional well-being. This is a great article from the American Psychological Association: Aging and Depression

REFERENCES

Campbell AJ, Buchner DM. Unstable and the fluctuations

of frailty. Age Ageing 1997; 26: 315-8.

Macias Núñez JF, Guillén Llera F, Ribera Casado JM.

Geriatría desde el principio. Barcelona: Glosa; 2001.

http://www.elsevierciencia.com/es/revista/farmacia-profesional-3/articulo/grandes-sindromes-geriatricos-13076255