Elderly patients in emergency department: Dyspnea and chest pain

INTRODUCTION: As in all countries, the rate of geriatric group in the population is increasing rapidly in parallel with the improvement of life style.. Geriatric patients frequently refer to ED with cardiopulmonary complaints. The aim of study was to investigate the diagnosis distributions of geriatric patients with chest pain- respiratory distress. METHODS: This retrospective study was performed with 1343 patients over 65 years of age who were admitted to ED with respiratory distress- chest pain evaluated with computed tomography - cardiac enzyme levels. RESULTS: A total of 1343 patients with respiratory distress and chest pain from the geriatric age group were included in the study. 531 patients who were admitted due to trauma and more than one admission to hospital with the same complaints were excluded from the study. Respiratory distress and chest pain were observed in 343 of 812 patients (42.24%) cause of pulmonary, 247 (30.41%) patients cardiac, and 222 (27.33%) had due to other causes. In patients with pulmonary-related respiratory distress and chest pain, the most common cause was pneumonia (39.06%);and in 51.41% of patients with cardiac causes, acute myocardial infarction was detected. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We believe that to known the etiology of respiratory distress and chest pain will provide better patient evaluation. Considering that the number of geriatric patients who applied for emergency services increases day by day, the fact that emergency workers have more knowledge about geriatrics is an important factor that will increase the success rate of emergency department treatment

An Unusual Side Effect of Dabigatran Etexilate Use - Acute Renal Failure

Dabigatran etexilate is a prodrug with anticoagulant effect through inhibition of thrombin. Although it does not require laboratory monitoring and has minimal food-drug interaction, its disadvantages are bleeding, common GIS-related side effects and the need for dosage adjustment according to the severity of liver/renal failure. We aimed to present and discuss an unusual side effect of dabigatran etexilate