title: Surgery in the nursing home patient.
abstract: Will a Geriatric Surgical Consult Service eventually develop into yet another surgical subspecialty? Precedent has been set in surgical fields such as pediatric and plastic surgery, and surely the expanding patient population will demand that some surgeons take care of the geriatric surgical patient full time. Those surgeons doing so will therefore become recognized experts and will be frequently consulted. The surgical problems faced by this unique patient population observed in our small series are most often straightforward. More complicated issues related to wound and intravenous line care, breast disease, and alimentary tract disease should be easily handled by an aggressive, conscientious, well-trained general surgeon.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Zenilman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016330:Frail Elderly; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D009735:Nursing Homes; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative