[Special considerations in geriatric anesthesiology : Aspects of perioperative management in older adults]

Older people need a specialized preoperative risk assessment to reliably identify those highly vulnerable risk patients who are in danger of a poor postoperative outcome. In this way these vulnerable risk patients can be separated from those who have successfully and healthily aged and therefore still show a high resilience even in old age. Careful planning of the perioperative management with integration of all disciplines and professions involved can ensure a safe perioperative treatment even for high-risk patients. The corresponding possibilities are presented in this article. The perioperative geriatric anesthesiological treatment pathway must be individually adapted and conceived to specifically address the risks of those patients who are particularly in danger of functional decline and complications.