[Limits of intensive care in elderly patients]

In view of increasing economic pressures in medicine it is understandable, that the sense of intensive care for the elderly patient is a matter of debate. Indeed much suggests that the genetically determined life span of human beings is 90-110 years, but in the individual an exact age cannot be recognized. As a result of increasing multimorbidity and reduced functional reserves the elderly are unquestionably more endangered than are the young. Numerical age, however, cannot determine the limits of treatment in intensive care units.