[Potentially inappropriate medications in the elderly: a list adapted to French medical practice]. / Médicaments potentiellement inappropriés aux personnes âgées: intérêt d'une liste adaptée à la pratique médicale française.

Drug induced adverse effects are frequently encountered in geriatrics. Their occurrence can be limited by an adapted prescription. Potentially inappropriate medications are drugs with an unfavourable benefit to risk ratio when other safer or more efficient therapeutic alternatives are available. An expert consensus allowed us to establish a new list of potentially inappropriate medications for people aged 75 or over, taking into account French prescribing habits. The drugs or the drug-classes proposed in this list are, generally speaking, and when possible, to be avoided in the elderly, but can be prescribed at times, under special clinical conditions, provided that the benefit to risk ratio is assessed. The French list proposed here could be considered as (i) an epidemiological tool for evaluating the quality of drug prescription in geriatrics and as (ii) a prescription guide suggesting an alternative treatment whenever a therapeutic alarm is raised. This guide could be used both as a base for the education of prescribers and as a way of increasing patients awareness. This French list should be kept up-to-date so as to remain adapted to the evolution of the knowledge on the effect of drugs in the elderly and of the pharmaceutical market.

Calcium oxalate crystalluria in elderly patients and treatment with naftidrofuryl oxalate.

Crystalluria is important in the evaluation of patients with urinary stone and is more frequently encountered in elderly than in younger adults. After noting that calcium oxalate monohydrate crystalluria was higher in elderly patients, we undertook a study to determine if oral treatment with naftidrofuryl oxalate, a drug frequently prescribed for elderly patients in France, was associated with crystalluria. The presence of early morning crystalluria was assessed in non-stone-forming patients hospitalized in a geriatric department. We studied 251 patients without a history of nephrolithiasis (mean age; 81.6 +/- 8.5 years) of whom 49 had been treated orally with naftidrofuryl oxalate at a mean dosage of 485 +/- 120 mg/24h. We identified and quantified the crystals in one early morning urine sample kept at room temperature. The frequency of crystalluria in elderly patients without stones who were not taking naftidrofuryl oxalate was 31.7% compared with only 6% in the general adult population. In this group, mainly calcium phosphate crystals were found. In patients who received naftidrofuryl oxalate, the frequency of crystalluria was 51% of which the major component was calcium oxalate monohydrate and not calcium phosphate. Naftidrofuryl oxalate may enhance crystal formation in elderly patients. This should be taken into account, particularly when other predisposing factors for nephrolithiasis are present, and a preventive increase in fluid intake considered.