Gastrostomy Tube Placement by Radiological Methods for Older Patients Requiring Enteral Nutrition: Not to be Forgotten

Background: The use of gastrostomy tubes for long-term nutritional support in older patients is frequent. Percutaneous gastrostomy tube placement may be performed using various techniques, including endoscopic, surgical, and radiologically-guided methods. While percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) placement is the most widely used and accepted approach, experience with the use of percutaneous radiological gastrostomy (PRG) is more limited.Objective: To evaluate the safety and short-term outcomes of PRG in older patients requiring long-term enteral feeding.Method: We performed a prospective study involving all patients aged 65 years and older who underwent PRG insertion at the Laniado hospital over a period of 2 years. Adverse events related to the gastrostomy tube insertion were recorded over a period of 3 months following the procedure.Results: A total of 58 patients were included with a mean age of 78.1 years, and 48% were women. The most frequent indications for enteral feeding were stroke (47%) and dementia (41%). The technical success rate was 100% with no immediate procedure-related mortality or morbidity. One-month mortality was 3%, and overall mortality at 3-month follow-up was 16%. Complications were reported in 39 (67%) of patients, with 17 (29%) experiencing more than 1 complication. While most complications (88%) were minor, major complications occurred in 19 (33%) of the patients. Peritonitis was the cause of death in 2 patients, and tube dislodgment occurred in 17 subjects. During the follow-up period 17 (29%) of patients were re-admitted to hospital, with the cause for re-hospitalization being unrelated to the PRG in half of the cases. Neither bleeding nor deep wound infection was detected in the study group.Conclusions: PRG is relatively safe and effective for gastrostomy placement in older patients, and this technique may be of value in patients with oral infections and those receiving anti-thrombotic therapy

Sensitivity of the dipstick in detecting bacteremic urinary tract infections in elderly hospitalized patients

<div><p>Background</p><p>The sensitivity of the dipstick in elderly patients with a suspected urinary tract infection (UTI) is unclear because of the inclusion of patients with urine contamination or asymptomatic bacteriuria in previous studies.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We selected consecutive patients aged 65 years or older hospitalized in internal medicine departments with bacteremic UTI (same organism in blood and urine cultures) minimizing misclassifications. The false positive rate was determined in consecutive patients with negative culture results. A positive dipstick was a test result with a trace leukocyte esterase and/or nitrite positivity. Bacteriuria was the growth of at least 10⁵ colony-forming units per milliliter of urine.</p><p>Results</p><p>Of 20,555 consecutive patients, 228 had a bacteremic UTI, and 4069 a negative culture result. The sensitivity of the dipstick was 96.9% (95% CI—93.7–98.6) with a false positive rate of 42.4% (95% CI, 41.0–43.8) in those with a negative culture result.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>In elderly hospitalized patients with a bacteremic UTI, the dipstick urinalysis is highly sensitive, much higher than reported previously in studies of UTIs in the elderly. It is unclear whether the observed high sensitivity of the dipstick was due to the exclusion of patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria or to spectrum bias. Studies of the clinical utility/disutility of using a negative dipstick to rule out a urinary tract infection are warranted.</p></div

Comparison of patients with negative urine cultures to those with a bacteremic urinary tract infection.

<p>Comparison of patients with negative urine cultures to those with a bacteremic urinary tract infection.</p

Trace leukocyte esterase and nitrite positivity in those with negative urine cultures and those with a bacteremic urinary tract infection.

<p>Trace leukocyte esterase and nitrite positivity in those with negative urine cultures and those with a bacteremic urinary tract infection.</p

A multidimensional approach to older patients during COVID-19 pandemic: a position paper of the Special Interest Group on Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment of the European Geriatric Medicine Society (EuGMS)

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a dramatic trigger that has challenged the intrinsic capacity of older adults and of society. Due to the consequences for the older population worldwide, the Special Interest Group on Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) of the European Geriatric Medicine Society (EuGMS) took the initiative of collecting evidence on the usefulness of the CGA-based multidimensional approach to older people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A narrative review of the most relevant articles published between January 2020 and November 2022 that focused on the multidimensional assessment of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Current evidence supports the critical role of the multidimensional approach to identify older adults hospitalized with COVID-19 at higher risk of longer hospitalization, functional decline, and short-term mortality. This approach appears to also be pivotal for the adequate stratification and management of the post-COVID condition as well as for the adoption of preventive measures (e.g., vaccinations, healthy lifestyle) among non-infected individuals. Conclusion: Collecting information on multiple health domains (e.g., functional, cognitive, nutritional, social status, mobility, comorbidities, and polypharmacy) provides a better understanding of the intrinsic capacities and resilience of older adults affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection. The EuGMS SIG on CGA endorses the adoption of the multidimensional approach to guide the clinical management of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic

Comprehensive geriatric assessment in older people : an umbrella review of health outcomes

Background: Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) has been in use for the last three decades. However, some doubts remain regarding its clinical use. Therefore, we aimed to capture the breadth of outcomes reported and assess the strength of evidence of the use of comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) for health outcomes in older Methods: Umbrella review of systematic reviews of the use of CGA in older adults searching in Pubmed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane library and CINHAL until 05 November 2021. All possible health outcomes were eligible. Two independent reviewers extracted key data. The grading of evidence was carried out using the GRADE for intervention studies, whilst data regarding systematic reviews were reported as narrative findings. Results: Among 1,683 papers, 31 systematic reviews (19 with meta-analysis) were considered, including 279,744 subjects. Overall, 13/53 outcomes were statistically significant (P &amp;lt; 0.05). There was high certainty of evidence that CGA reduces nursing home admission (risk ratio [RR] = 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.75–0.89), risk of falls (RR = 0.51; 95%CI: 0.29–0.89), and pressure sores (RR = 0.46; 95%CI: 0.24–0.89) in hospital medical setting; decreases the risk of delirium (OR = 0.71; 95%CI: 0.54–0.92) in hip fracture; decreases the risk of physical frailty in community-dwelling older adults (RR = 0.77; 95%CI: 0.64–0.93). Systematic reviews without meta-analysis indicate that CGA improves clinical outcomes in oncology, haematology, and in emergency department. Conclusions: CGA seems to be beneficial in the hospital medical setting for multiple health outcomes, with a high certainty of evidence. The evidence of benefits is less strong for the use of CGA in other settings