Geriatrics Flashcards
What proportion of >75 are in care homes?
7%
How may old people present?
• Complexity • Frailty • Functional / psychosocial • Non-specific presentations / syndromes – eg Falls
What affects balance?
Inputs
- Vision
- Vestibular
- Joint position
- Muscle stretch
- Peripheral sensation
Outputs
- skeletal muscles
(joints)
- eye movements
What in the environment will affect balance?
- Floor
- Lighting
- Obstacles
- Distractions
How does higher function affect balance?
- Intention and plan
- Concentration
- Memory
- Confidence and fear
What is reserve?
Extra capacity that everyone has to cope with external stress
What is frailty?
A loss of reserve
What is the process of accelerated ageing?
- Loss of muscle
- Age related change
- Illness
- Reduced function
- Reduced confidence
What happens when a frail person gets a minor illness?
- Is not functionally able
- May result in later inability to acquire functional ability
- Longer period of recovery
What factors are poor outcome predictors in frailty?
– Age, sex, smoking status
– Comorbidities (Cardioresp, CKD, CA)
– Biomarkers (albumin, creatinine…)
– Function
When is a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) used?
– On inpatients in specialist units
– To high-risk (frail) outpatients
How do you do a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA)?
Falls history Balance & Gait, mobility Cognition, mood and capacity Social situation and support (Ask who they are happy for us to talk to ) Medication - review and consider Nutrition and hydration Skin Continence & elimination Feet & footwear Sensory ( Vision, hearing, peripheral)
What would you look at in a medication review in a CGA?
Removing unnecessary Antihypertensives Antipsychotics Diuretics Sedatives and night sedation
Adding
Ca&Vit D
DVT prophylaxis
Antihypertensives per HYVET (indapamide +/- perindopril)
How do we look at the bigger picture?
- Acute change vs progression
- How far from baseline*?
- Is the new problem the main problem?
- Declining? Dying?
- What can we achieve?
- How can we improve QOL / independence?
How do you take a history with CGA in mind?
- Background (in a nutshell)
- Presentation
- Initial assessment & diagnosis
- Course of admission / treatment so far
- Current status
- Problems, issues, gaps, questions & revisions
- Plan