Where The Needs Of Others Come First · Available 24x7 For Emergencies
A study involving more than 1.8 million adults in Alberta, Canada, has uncovered an unexpectedly high incidence of untreated kidney failure among the elderly, suggesting the need for more clinical attention to the implications of chronic kidney disorders among extremely old patients.
The study “highlights a potentially sizable unmeasured burden of untreated kidney failure among older adults,” Manjula Kurella Tamura, MD, MPH, and Wolfgang Winkelmayer, MD, MPH, of Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., wrote in an accompanying editorial.
Although perhaps too soon to be conclusive, this points out the need for older adults and their families to be politely but assertively insistent that older adults’ primary care physicians and specialists consider and explain all treatment options, not leaving out any simply because the patient is “older”. Families of elderly persons living in Carlsbad and elsewhere may wish to consider using the services of a professional geriatric care manager to act as an advocate and expert advisor in such circumstances, especially when the older adult has no family or friends living nearby to help them.
Professional care managers from A Servant’s Heart are available to assist with such needs and make sure that Seniors offered the full range of fair and reasonable treatment options.
See more: Hemmelgarn B, et al “Rates of treated and untreated kidney failure in older versus younger adults” JAMA 2012; 307:2507-2515. and Kurella Tamura M, Winkelmayer W “Treated and untreated kidney failure in older adults: what’s the right balance?”JAMA 2012; 307: 2545-2546.
Originally posted 2012-06-20 18:08:26.