title: [Acute decompensation of heart failure in the elderly frail patient: an innovative model of care].
abstract: Heart failure is a major and growing public health problem that affects close to 10 million European and 5 million North Americans. Substitutive hospital-at-home care, defined as"a service that provides active treatment by health care professionals, in the patient's home, of a condition that otherwise would require acute hospital in-patient care", may be a safe and efficacious alternative to traditional hospital care for elderly patients with an acutely decompensated heart failure. Data discussed in this paper suggest that hospital-at-home management of selected elderly patients with acute decompensation of chronic heart failure may be associated with delayed additional admissions, improvements in quality of life and alleviation of depressive symptoms without adverse effects in regard to mortality.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Discipline Medico-Chirurgiche, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria San Giovanni Battista, Torino.
authors.forename: Vittoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tibaldi
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Isaia
authors.forename: Nicoletta Aimonino
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Ricauda
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based; D006801:Humans