Guidelines and algorithms

How to prevent disability during hospitalization?     Source : Iatrogenic_disability_poster

The British Geriatrics Society (BGS) has launched a two-part guidance on the recognition and management of older patients with frailty in community and outpatient settings. Called ‘Fit for Frailty’, these guidelines aim to help social workers, ambulance crews, carers, GPs, nurses and others working with older people in the community to recognize the condition of frailty and to increase understanding of the strategies available for managing it.

In this consensus document, the International Working Group on Sarcopenia discusses the current state of the art in the development of biomarkers to be used in clinical trials on sarcopenia, and make recommendations for the adoption of comprehensive operative definitions of sarcopenia, the use of imaging techniques, and adequate length of study.

This article discusses the results of a frailty consensus conference convened in Orlando, Florida, USA in December 2012, which aimed to propose an operational definition of frailty, discuss screening and treatment, and identify an appropriate population to screen. The authors propose a call to action to successfully combat frailty, in part because of a growing elderly population.

An international consensus conference on cognitive frailty was organized by the International Academy on Nutrition and Aging (IANA) and the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) on April 16, 2013 in Toulouse, France. Kelaiditi et al. describe the results of the consensus conference and provide the first definition of a “cognitive frailty” condition in older adults.

This article summarizes the results of a working group of experts from a variety of fields related to frailty, who aimed to develop a complete and concrete definition of frailty for clinical use.

A meeting of the International Working Group on Sarcopenia, a group of scientists and geriatricians, was convened on November 18, 2009, in Rome, Italy, with the objective to develop a consensus definition of sarcopenia. The authors agreed on the following definition: “Sarcopenia is the age-associated loss of skeletal muscle mass and function.

The authors used a formal consensus process to develop a definition, diagnostic criteria, and classification system specific to cancer cachexia. Cancer cachexia is defined as a multifactorial syndrome characterised by an ongoing loss of skeletal muscle mass (with or without loss of fat mass) that cannot be fully reversed by conventional nutritional support and leads to progressive functional impairment.

The lack of a universally agreed upon operational definition of cachexia has limited identification and treatment of cachectic patient as well as the development and approval of potential therapeutic agents. The authors report on a consensus conference held on December 13-14, 2006, in Washington, DC, USA.

The authors report the results of a meeting of the International Working Group on Sarcopenia held on June 7-8, 2011 in Toulouse, France. The currently available biomarkers that could be utilized in clinical trials of sarcopenia are discussed.