At risk populations: from children to the elderly

At risk populations: from children to the elderly. Problems/objectives: When considering emergencies in children and elderly people, the risks and consequences are considerably different. For example, the anatomical differences of children have direct consequences on intubation and airway physiology influences breathing, circulation and neurological outcomes.Pharmacotherapy should be adapted for children according to their differences (maturational changes) where drug metabolism and disposition is concerned and for the elderly, to geriatric pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, the existence of poly-medications and the risk of adverse drug reactions.

Methodology: Literature review

Results: Children respond better to rapid medical care than adults. Hypoxia is dangerous for the child and is responsible for bradycardia and cardiac arrest. Hypoxia can be deleterious for elderly patients because of their fragility, e.g., less metabolic reserves, poor muscular compensation and higher risk of heart failure.

Conclusions: It is widely accepted that children require paediatric-specific assessment/treatment equipment and pharmacotherapy. When compared to adults, there is no difference in the Royal College of Physician guidelines for elderly people`s reanimation, however, other criteria such as polypathology, co-morbidity, polypharmacy, fragility, risk of delirium, adverse drug reaction, poor outcome and quality of life should be considered.