What's New
AGEsm: The American Geriatric Experience is designed to educate health care professionals about the unique needs of elderly patients undergoing complex cardiac surgical procedures.
Our overall objective is to improve the quality of existing health care practices and services for elderly cardiac patients, at a time when their increasing numbers are leading to increasing health care needs.
Because the special medical and surgical issues surrounding the elderly population with cardiac problems have seldom been addressed, they warrant careful attention.
To address the comprehensive picture of the health care needs specific to geriatric patients, our interdisciplinary approach incorporates the talents of health professionals from cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, psychiatry, ethics, rehabilitation, occupational therapy, social services, and nursing.
In particular, we hope to make physicians and ancillary health care workers of the importance of psychosocial assessment of geriatric patients.
Geriatric Cardiac Surgery Initiatives
As part of its efforts in setting new standards for the clinical care of older cardiac patients, the Geriatric Cardiac Surgery program has:
- developed methods for decreasing postoperative confusion and depression.
- recently initiated a major study of quality-of-life issues for older patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
- launched an online education program for community physicians and cardiologists (see www.ageonline.org).
This curriculum focuses on anatomic, social and psychological differences in the geriatric patient and considers a wide range of issues from occupational therapy and daily reorientation procedures to postoperative problems such as difficulty swallowing (which may lead to aspiration pneumonia and deprive the patient of crucial calories).
Off-pump Bypass
Of particular importance to the geriatric patient is the high incidence of neuropsychiatric complications after bypass surgery.
Columbia University investigators are evaluating off-pump bypass among geriatric patients to find out whether this technique lessens depression and other neuropsychiatric conditions after surgery.
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