[Survey of the incidence of undesirable events in geriatric services]

In elderly with the risk of side effects of drugs is more important due to the age-related changes in organs and the drug interactions. It's why 26 gerontologic centers performed a multicentric survey about side effects (SE) incidence during a short period of 15 days. This survey was realised by REGATES (Network of Evaluation in Gerontology of Activity of Treatments and Side Effects). 2829 patients were included (8% acute patients, 23% Geriatric medicine, 69% nursing home). 74 SE were noticed in 64 patients among 21 centers. There were 23 men and 41 women with an average age 81.2 +/- 6.5 y. taking 5.7 +/- 1.6 drugs/per day. The main SE were neurological or cardiovascular (26% each). SE incidence is high with extrapolation 636 SE per year for 1000 geriatric patients. Considering the 100,000 hospital beds for elderly, we may measure the lack of informations which don't reach the pharmacovigilance centers, in relation to the weak medical density.