[Cardiovascular therapy problems in the elderly patient].
The therapeutic management of elderly patients should be extremely careful, particularly in those over 75 years of age. As a matter of fact, in such patients a steep increase of the risk of comorbidity and of dependence has been evidenced. This implies a more complex therapeutic management, that must be oriented to the amelioration of quality of life more than to the resolution of the single pathologies. However, all the intervention trials so far conducted excluded such patients. Therefore, they cannot be considered representative of the geriatric epidemiological reality. As a result, there is virtually no useful information on the efficacy and safety of cardiovascular drugs in patients over 75 years of age. However, the following items should be pointed out: only drugs whose efficacy has been proved should be used, and only after a thorough diagnosis; a multidimensional evaluation should be performed, also addressing psychological, social, environmental and economical factors that could affect the clinical course; the risks and benefits of any therapy should be considered, particularly in the presence of comorbidity, as the number of assumed drugs directly correlates with the risk of developing adverse reactions; drugs should be dosed according to renal function and body weight, possibly starting with half the dosage of younger patients; after starting the therapy, patients should be kept under strict clinical control, and every new symptom should be considered an adverse reaction, unless it will not disappear after withdrawal of the drug; serum drug concentration should be monitored whenever possible, given its larger variability in advanced age.