[COVID-19 infection in the elderly in French-speaking Switzerland: an inventory of beliefs, convictions and certainties].

Most patients hospitalized for COVID-19 are aged over 70 years old, and half of those who die are over 83 years old. Older patients do not always present with typical symptoms (fever, cough and dyspnoea) but sometimes are and remain asymptomatic (contact screening), or have aspecific presentations (altered general condition, falls, delirium, unusual fatigue). Rectal swab, which minimizes exposition risk, appears useful in long-term care patients with diarrhea.

Functional trajectories of older patients admitted to an Acute Care Unit for Elders.

Aims And Objectives: To describe the functional trajectories of older medical inpatients and to identify factors associated with overall and in-hospital functional decline.

Background: Functional decline during a hospital stay is an important clinical outcome because independence remains a major determinant of older persons' quality of life and health care demands.

Design And Methods: Participants (n = 189) were admitted to the Acute Care Unit for Elders of a Swiss academic hospital and were aged 65 years and older.

Spectrum of digoxin-induced ocular toxicity: a case report and literature review.

Background: Digoxin intoxication results in predominantly digestive, cardiac and neurological symptoms. This case is outstanding in that the intoxication occurred in a nonagenarian and induced severe, extensively documented visual symptoms as well as dysphagia and proprioceptive illusions. Moreover, it went undiagnosed for a whole month despite close medical follow-up, illustrating the difficulty in recognizing drug-induced effects in a polymorbid patient.

[Review in geriatric medicine 2014].

Several studies contributed to improving the diagnostic and prognostic assessment of delirium in hospitalized older patients. Direct patient education proved efficient in benzodiazepines withdrawal. A position statement of the American Geriatrics Society does not recommend tube feeding when eating difficulties arise in older persons suffering from advanced dementia.

Efficiency of the lausanne clinical pathway for proximal femoral fractures.

Unlabelled: Purpose/Introduction: The number of hip fractures is rising, due to increases in life expectancy. In such cases, patients are at risk from post-operative complications and subsequently the average length of hospitalization may be extended. In 2011, we established a clinical pathway (CP), a specific model of care for patient-care management, to improve the clinical and economic outcomes of proximal femoral fracture management in elderly patients.

[How to prevent functional decline: an acute care integrated model for the elderly].

Hospitalization in older patients is frequently associated with functional decline. Hospital factors and inadapted process of care are factors leading to this decline. Acute care units specifically developed for older patients can prevent functional decline.