[Injuries in elderly patients: maximal management versus minimal osteosynthesis depending on active life style and...

The increasing expenses of health care maximize the costs for the whole of society. Nobody is able to pay them any longer. There are two reasons for this expansion: 1. Increase in the number of people over 65 years of age, over the next 5 years totalling about 23.6% in the whole of Europe; 2. Innovative developments in medicine regarding technological aspects and life-prolonging methods. Injuries in the elderly often show an unstable balance in the regulation of daily life and somatic fitness. The aim of treatment is to restore activity as before and to reach full weight-bearing ability. Rehabilitation is done after acute surgery in a geriatric hospital as intensively as possible. Increasing unemployment leads to a decrease of wage contingents. With less capital rationalization becomes urgent and rationing more probable. There is no medical indication for this except an economic one. This has to be justified by the politicians, not by the physicians.