Hispanic-American elders. Implications for health-care providers.

American health-care practitioners are faced with a rapidly growing, geriatric, Hispanic-American population. This group shares certain cultural links but is largely heterogeneous and comprised of many subgroups, the largest of which are Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans. Health-care practitioners face significant socioeconomic, cultural, and language barriers in providing care to these patients.

Common neurologic emergencies in the elderly population.

Aged individuals often present to the ED with acute neurologic syndromes. The disorders described in this article are among the most difficult to diagnose in the older patient. Accurate diagnosis of syndromes such as delirium or syncope mandates a thorough history and physical examination, even in the most frail or combative of patients.

Emergency services use by elderly individuals.

Population predictions suggest that the proportion of elderly people will continue to rise until 1996, will remain constant until 2016, and will continue to rise again. If the current trends continue, the ED will become an increasingly important provider of primary health care for the elderly population. Practitioners, educators, and administrators in emergency medicine should prepare now to meet the growing needs of this population.

Cecal bascule: an overlooked diagnosis in the elderly.

This elderly male with a long history of alcohol abuse presented with an acute pleural trauma and hemopneumothorax, which may have served as the precipitating medical illness for cecal volvulus. He subsequently developed bacterial peritonitis as a complication of his bowel obstruction. It is probable that his pleural cavity was seeded hematogenously via a bacteremia from his peritonitis, thus accounting for the empyema with species typical of bowel flora.

Rapid bedside assessment of postoperative confusion in older patients.

As the number of elderly patients undergoing surgery increases, postoperative confusion becomes an increasingly encountered problem. Postoperative confusion has long been recognized as a specific entity, but the etiology and risk factors have not been well defined. To make the diagnosis promptly, the physician must maintain a high index of suspicion.