Aging, Heart Disease, and its Management

Reviews the best therapies and surgical techniques available to provide quality care for the elderly cardiac patient and of those areas that require further research. The authors detail preventive therapies and the cardiovascular syndromes that disproportionately afflict the older individual, including arrhythmias (particularly atrial fibrillation), syncope, heart failure (particularly diastolic heart failure), and ischemic heart disease. They also delineate the surgical management of the heart patient with discussions of postoperative management and its complications and of specific surgical procedures such as coronary artery bypass grafting, valve surgery, pacemaker and defibibrillators, and surgical management of heart failure.

As the "Baby Boom" generation joins the ranks of Americans already 65 or older (now 13% of the population), the need for physicians and gerontologists who understand cardiovascular disease in the elderly will become critical. In Aging, Heart Disease, and Its Management: Facts and Controversies, a panel of world renowned clinicians from the foremost academic institutions review the best therapies and surgical techniques available to provide quality care for the elderly cardiac patient, and highlight the controversial areas that require further research. Their survey details preventive therapies and the cardiovascular syndromes that disproportionately afflict the older individual, including arrhythmias (particularly atrial fibrillation), syncope, heart failure (particularly diastolic heart failure), and ischemic heart disease. They also delineate the surgical management of the heart patient, with discussions of postoperative management and its complications, and such specific operative procedures as coronary artery bypass grafting, valve surgery, pacemakers and defibrillators, and surgical management of heart failure. Additional chapters guide the clinician through the major nutritional, neurological, pharmacologic, psychiatric, ethical, and rehabilitation issues that contribute significantly to the quality of care of the elderly.
Comprehensive and authoritative, Aging, Heart Disease, and Its Management: Facts and Controversies offers today's clinicians not only an up-to-date survey of the latest therapies and surgical techniques available for treating the special cardiovascular problems of the elderly, but also an examination of those areas of medical controversy in need of further investigation.