Particular Aspects of Medical Care Provided to Elderly Patients with Clostridium difficile Enterocolitis - Considerations

Clostridium difficile colitis currently represents a major public health problem worldwide. Its incidence is increasing, much of patients requiring hospitalization. Hospital costs areincreased both in the first episode of the disease and relapses, which mayaffect up to a quarter of patients. Until present were identified a variety of favorable factors for the occurrence of Clostridium difficile colitis and for severe disease. Advanced age, over 65, it is one of them and has an important role.

In hospitals Clostridium difficile colitis is a matter of becoming more acute, especially related to elderly patients. Health care for the elderly are complex and multiple, different from those of adult. This care should take into account the particularities linked to old age: presence of a multitude of chronic diseases associated, mobility and mobilization increasingly difficult and low, dependence in different degrees of helping from another person, less capacity to adapt to environmental changes (e.g. hospitalization), mental impairment, incontinence, etc. For example in Infectious Diseases Hospital of Brasov in 2015 were 228 hospitalizations for Clostridium difficile colitis. Of these 66.23 % were patients older than 65 years and 21.05% over 80 years of age.(Read more)