Abstract
In elderly, pneumonia may be more severe because of impaired immunity and frailty as well as a reduced ability to cough and clear secretions from the lungs. Hence, they have an increased rate of respiratory failure and death. Furthermore, the impact of COVID-19 pneumonia in the elderly may have the characteristics of a multisystem disease with direct consequences on the treatment. Pneumonia in elderly patients with multimorbidity is significantly more complicated. For these reasons, the rate of hospitalisation and the mortality rate is very high in older patients. The presence of comorbidities, as well as a frailty condition, is a risk factor. The most common symptoms on admission were fever and cough, followed by sputum production and fatigue [1]. Elderly may present an atypical presentation of the symptoms. But they are more susceptible to severe complications that may lead to death. In this chapter, the authors analysed the type and the impact of complications in elderly patients.
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Tibullo, L. et al. (2020). Elderly Pneumonia COVID-19 Cases: Impact on the Outcome. In: Vargas, N., Esquinas, A.M. (eds) Covid-19 Airway Management and Ventilation Strategy for Critically Ill Older Patients. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55621-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55621-1_2
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