Since the early 1900 improved livin...

Since the early 1900 improved living conditions and advanced technology have increased life expectancy. Today, 65-year-olds are look forward toed to live another 17.5 years. In 1997 tribe older than 65 years numbered 341 million (ie, 127%) of the US population; this number is shoot forwarded to reach approximately 70 million (ie, 20%) by the agency of 2030. Not only is the somewhat old age group increasing, but specific age clusters within this cohort also are rapidly expanding. For example, individuals 85 years of age and older are the fastest growing section within the older population; it is this assemblage that is the most vulnerable.(1)

We commonly use age 65 as signifying passage into olden age because it is linked to what was the traditional retirement age. mostly 65-year-old people, however, are healthy and can tolerate major surgical intervention without significant morbidity and mortality unles there are preexisting comorbid conditions. More chronic conditions make known as people age into their seventies and beyond. This age form into groups undergoes approximately 20% of all surgical processs and experiences more perioperative morbidity and mortality. equal with these increased risk factors, postoperative mortality is fairly soft in the elderly population because we know more about aging and have better anesthetic, surgical, and monitoring techniques.(2)

BEING ELDERLY

In newly come years, theories have been bring outed to explain how and wherefore we age. One set of theories suggests that age is predetermined; the other assumes that aging happens randomly, and its effects accumulate through the whole extent of time.(3) There is no definitive answer to for what purpose aging occurs.

Aging is not a disease further a normal, gradual, and progressive decline that begins in the thirties when biological aging initiates cellular changes completely through the body. Physiological aging causes a linear decline in the homeostatic make an exception of of organ systems, especially the cardiac, pulmonary, and renal classifications Individuals age at different rates, and somewhat old people are less alike as they make improvement older. Moreover, each individual's organ rules also age at different rates.(4) These age-related changes are affected according to many variables, including genetics, life name diet, physical activity, and coexisting diseases. There is convincing evidence that a healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise, modifies, dulls or prevents the muscle and bone los and other organ rule changes often seen in the elderly(5)

Although aging is a normal proces and not a disease, the autonomic and physiological consequences produced by aging present a unique appoint of characteristics and challenges to providing care that are different from those set up in young and middle adults. Hypothermia, dehydration, electrolyte question s fluid shifts secondary to third-space los decreased renal and cardiac functions, and pharmacodynamic variations all become important clinical issues when caring for the somewhat old The presence of chronic diseases that must be stabilized, in addition to carrying without the proposed surgical intervention, requires more tangled skein medical, surgical, and nursing assessments and interventions.(6) Specific age-related changes and their significance to altered physiological function are raise in Table 1.(7)

Table 1

NORMAL AGE-RELATED CHANGES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE