[Disabled elderly people waiting for institutionalization to a hospital ward: prospective study in the administrative district of Strasbourg (France)].

Objectives: Our aim was to estimate the number of non-satisfied instutionalization requests for inpatients and to describe the strategies elaborated to compensate for the waiting time.

Methods: This prospective follow-up study concerning all requests for institution admission for inpatients aged 75 years or older hospitalized in acute care and rehabilitation wards. Descriptive data were gathered throughout the social support process conducted during the hospitalization.

[Home living conditions in Alsace of the disabled elderly aged 75 years and more].

Objective: Our aim was to describe the living conditions of disabled elderly subjects aged 75 years and more living at home.

Design: This study was conducted in 1996-97 in the Alsace region in France and included two parts. First, a sample survey was mailed to 15,600 subjects randomly selected from a pension funds list.

[Early response to oral cobalamin therapy in older patients with vitamin B12 deficiency].

Purpose: Standard treatment of vitamin B12 deficiency involves regular intramuscular cobalamin administration. The aim of this study was to determine whether oral cobalamin treatment may be an effective therapy for treating older patients with cobalamin deficiency related to nutritional deficiency and food-cobalamin malabsorption.

Patients And Methods: We prospectively studied 20 patients older than 80 years with established cobalamin deficiency related to food-cobalamin malabsorption (n=14) and nutritional deficiency (n=6) who received 1000 micro g of oral cyanocobalamin per day.

[Urinary tract infections due to wide spectrum beta lactamase producing enterobacteriaceae].

Objectives: The aim of this study was to specify the characteristics of enterobacterial urinary infections producing wide spectrum beta-lactamase (WSBL) and the management strategies for these patients infected in geriatric wards.

Methods: The prevalence, bacteriological characteristics and treatment regimens of enterobacterial urinary infections producing WSBL, diagnosed in a geriatric department of internal medicine from May 1977 to April 2001, were studied retrospectively.

Results: Sixty-six enterobacterial urinary infections producing WSBL were diagnosed, with 53 (80%) of them acquired in the ward.