[Salt-free diet and diuretics in the elderly (author's transl)]

A salt-free diet is usually useless or dangerous in the elderly subject. It has at present only rare indications, such as after acute pulmonary oedema or congestive heart failure during initial treatment. In all other cases, it may be replaced by a reasonable diet; sodium intake remains permitted, but naturally one should not fall in the opposite extreme. As in younger subjects, and provided one takes into consideration the subjacent renal condition, properly prescribed diuretics have transformed the situation in the treatment of heart failure as in essential hypertension. Naturally the patient still requires regular clinical supervision and laboratory tests which may in practice be limited to periodical estimation of blood urea and serum potassium, less regularly, blood sugar and uric acid.