Current aspects of secondary and tertiary prevention from the viewpoint of the clinical gerontologist
Lüttje, D.; Varwig, D.; Krause, D.; Lucke, C.
Zeitschrift für Arztliche Fortbildung 89(8): 817-824
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-2178 PMID: 8850112 Document Number: 442244
Prevention is of importance when the patient is already suffering from a serious disease, e.g., from arterial obstructive disease causing a stroke or an amputation, from a hip fracture or other diseases that might threaten his independence. Prevention covers a wide field of topics. Most importantly, the patient must recover from his acute disease. It is important to avoid complications which are not specific for the disease but are typical for a bedridden old person (decubital ulcer, dehydration etc.). Prevention also means to avoid recurrence of the same disease as well as complications that frequently occur during the clinical course and may influence the outcome (spasticity in stroke patients, muscular calcification following hip replacement).