Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2005, 205(3)

Invited Review

Medical Treatments and Cares for Geriatric Syndrome: New Strategies Learned from Frail Elderly

HIROSHI KUBO, KATSUTOSHI NAKAYAMA, SATORU EBIHARA and HIDETADA SASAKI

Department of Geriatric and Respiratory Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan

In Japan, there are 21 million older people above 65 years, and about 8% of them are frail elderly. Geriatrics is to study the frail elderly as to why they become frail elderly, and to treat patients properly or the remaining 92% older people not to become frail elderly. In order to promote health of the older people, geriatricians have to take deep insights for cares as well as medical treatments. With such a will, we find the way to prevent diseases in the older people. In this review, we describe medical treatments and cares for promoting successful aging.

keywords —— geriatrics; dysphagia; pneumonia; depression; Alzheimer's disease; frail elderly

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2005, 205, 205-214

Present address for reprints: Hidetada Sasaki, M.D., Ph.D., President Akita Nursing and Welfare University, 2-3-4 Shimizu, Oodate, Akita 017-0046, Japan.

e-mail: h-sasaki@well.ac.jp