Opioids in geriatric units in 14 Belgian hospitals: prevalence, dosage and associated factors.

Introduction: Adverse effects of opioids are common among older individuals, and undertreatment as well as overuse can be an issue. Epidemiological data on opioid use in older individuals are available, but scarce in hospitalized patients.Aims: The aim of this study is to examine the one-day prevalence of opioid use among older inpatients and identify the factors associated with both opioid use and dosage.Materials and methods: One-day cross-sectional study with data collected from geriatric units across 14 Belgian hospitals. The primary focus of the study is to assess the prevalence of opioid use and dosage, along with identifying associated factors. To achieve this, a multiple binary logistic regression model was fitted for opioid use, and a multiple linear regression model for opioid dose.Results: Opioids were used in 24.4% of 784 patients, of which 57.9% was treated with tramadol, 13.2% with oxycodone or morphine and 28.9% with transdermal buprenorphine or fentanyl. The odds for opioid use were 4.2 times higher in patients in orthogeriatric units compared to other patients (OR=4.2, 95% CI=2.50-7.05). The prevalence of opioid use was 34% higher in patients without dementia compared to patients with dementia (OR=0.66, 95% CI=0.46-0.95). The overall mean daily dosage was 14.07mg subcutaneous morphine equivalent. After adjustment for age, gender and dementia, dosage was only associated with type of opioid: the estimated mean opioid dose was 70% lower with tramadol (mean ratio=0,30,95% CI=0,23-0,39) and 67% lower with oxycodone and morphine (mean ratio=0,33, 95% CI=0,22-0,48) compared to transdermal buprenorphine and transdermal fentanyl.Conclusions: One in four patients received opioid treatment. It is not clear whether this reflects under- or overtreatment, but these results can serve as a benchmark for geriatric units to guide future pain management practices. The utilization of transdermal fentanyl and buprenorphine, resulting in higher doses of morphine equivalent, poses significant risks for side effects.

The concomitant use of paracetamol and flucloxacillin. A rare cause of high anion gap metabolic acidosis in the frail oldest old.

OBJECTIVES: This article describes the occurrence of a high anion gap metabolic acidosis (HAGMA) in two older, female patients with a methicillin sensitive staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) infection. Both patients received flucloxacillin and paracetamol. Both of them initially improved but declined rapidly after two to three weeks of treatment. They developed a severe HAGMA resulting in their death. The objective of this article is to determine whether old age is a major risk factor for developing HAGMA when combining paracetamol with flucloxacillin. METHODS: A literature study was conducted using the MEDLINE database, PubMed. The used MeSH terms were 'flucloxacillin, acetaminophen, glutathione synthetase deficiency and acidosis'. Furthermore, we used two cases to illustrate our findings. RESULTS: The origin of the high anion gap metabolic acidosis is the accumulation of 5-oxoproline which is known to occur when combining flucloxacillin with paracetamol due to their interaction with different enzymes of the gamma glutamyl cycle. This leads to the depletion of glutathione and the formation of 5-oxoproline. This phenomenon has a higher risk of occurring in frail older adults as most of them have several predisposing risk factors which result in lower baseline glutathione reserve. These risk factors include old age, malnutrition, assigned female at birth, pre-existing kidney and/or liver dysfunction, uncontrolled diabetes and sepsis. CONCLUSION: The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of this phenomenon and its higher occurrence in frail older adults, which hopefully will lead to an earlier diagnosis with a better outcome for the patient.

Can usual gait speed be used as a prognostic factor for early palliative care identification in hospitalized older patients? A prospective study on two different wards.

BACKGROUND: Timely palliative care in frail older persons remains challenging. Scales to identify older patients at risk of functional decline already exist. However, factors to predict short term mortality in older hospitalized patients are scarce. METHODS: In this prospective study, we recruited patients of 75 years and older at the department of cardiology and geriatrics. The usual gait speed measurement closest to discharge was chosen. We used the risk of dying within 1 year as parameter for starting palliative care. ROC curves were used to determine the best cut-off value of usual gait speed to predict one-year mortality. Time to event analyses were assessed by COX regression. RESULTS: On the acute geriatric ward (n = 60), patients were older and more frail (assessed by Katz and iADL) in comparison to patients on the cardiology ward (n = 82); one-year mortality was respectively 27 and 15% (p = 0.069). AUC on the acute geriatric ward was 0.748 (p = 0.006). The best cut-off value was 0.42 m/s with a sensitivity and specificity of 0.857 and 0.643. Slow walkers died earlier than faster walkers (HR 7.456, p = 0.011), after correction for age and sex. On the cardiology ward, AUC was 0.560 (p = 0.563); no significant association was found between usual gait speed and survival time. CONCLUSIONS: Usual gait speed may be a valuable prognostic factor to identify patients at risk for one-year mortality on the acute geriatric ward but not on the cardiology ward.