Essay Topic:

The problem of importance of the differentiation of geriatric and pediatric patient pathologies.

Essay Questions:

Why is it vital for a doctor to be able to differentiate geriatric and pediatric patient pathologies? What is the major difference between geriatrics and pediatrics? What range of diseases do geriatrics and pediatrics include?

Thesis Statement:

Nowadays, it is extremely important for a physician to be able to diagnose the pathology correctly so he is able to provide effective treatment and well-timed medical “interference”.

Geriatric and pediatric patient pathology comparison essay

Introduction: Both geriatric patient pathology and pediatric patient pathology are essential parts of contemporary medicine. This is especially important due to the age groups, which geriatrics and pediatrics deal with: children and the elderly. Nowadays, it is extremely important for a physician to be able to diagnose the pathology correctly so he is able to provide effective treatment and well-timed medical “interference”. The process of the primary diagnostics occurs through the physical medical trends cover the most risky periods throughout a human life. Deal with pathology at early periods, trying to improve something and make the patient’s functioning with the outside world productive.

2. Geriatrics and pediatrics. Both of the As it is well known geriatrics primarily concentrates on health promotion and the prevention and treatment of diseases within the elderly group. Geriatrics pathology practice offers a wide range of different diseases, which a geriatrician is supposed to work with. They work offering the pathology diagnostics focusing on osteoporosis, dementia, depression and so on. The variation between geriatric patient pathology and pediatric patient pathology, as it has been already mentioned is primarily based on the age difference of the patients. Elderly patients in comparison to young patients have already experienced physiologic changes and some medications may be useless and ineffective due tot heir medication experience throughout their whole life. A young body is more of a subject to changes and improvement, so therefore even pediatric patient pathology may be viewed as a “preventive maintenance” of the possible complications. The main peculiarity of the geriatric pathology is the extreme increase of the number of the patient pathologies after the age of 75. Pediatric pathology is the initial process of dealing with the patient’s pathology, which most commonly with the age changes moves over to geriatric patient with the same pathology but in a more severe form. In case of the chronic pathology the patient may suffer acute illness multi-conditions. Pediatric pathology ordinarily deals with a pathology, which is not complex, but rather isolated. Diagnostics in the younger age is easier due to the symptom manifestations. At the same time “somatic issues” are rather more complicated within the elderly pathology. Somatic complaints may be the same for a large number of diseases, which make the arrival of a diagnosis tremendously difficult. The range of the disease that geriatric patients deal with is enormous. For instance the loss of functional abilities for children is ordinarily the result of some sort of injury that caused the pathology. At the same time losing functional abilities in the old age may be the manifestation of a disease that in the childhood would not even have this symptom. The range of problems geriatric patient experience is large. The main problems may be distributed on groups according to the pathology presented. This gives the next groups: cardiovascular pathology, neurological pathology, endocrine pathology, genitourinary pathology, hematological pathology, musculoskeletal pathology, and psychiatric, respiratory and skin pathologies.

The main syndromes, which enter the compound of the geriatric pathologies, are the next: the chronic pain, which the patients suffer, sexual dysfunctions, sleeping disorders, thermoregulation (hyper- and hypothermia) and sometimes malnutrition. Pediatric pathology as the geriatric pathology deals with the same range of diseases stretching in the same medical areas: cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine, genitourinary, hematological, musculoskeletal, psychiatric, respiratory and skin pathologies. This narrows the difference down to the age peculiarities, which certainly have impact on the way the diseases reveal themselves. The pathologies in pediatrics are in their majority related to the organ systems of a child, which are infracted. It includes: traumas, ischemia, necrosis, infections, autoimmune diseases, and environmental exposures, causing pathology, genetic diseases like oncogenesis. Anxiety, as a psychological pathology of a patient is observed both in geriatric and pediatric patients. Pediatric pathology does not commonly deal with the patient’s alcoholism, causing pathology or depression caused by the pathology leading to a potential suicide. Pediatric gastrointestinal and liver biopsies make a significant part of specimens examined by the pediatric pathology laboratories. This pathology deals with malabsorption and motolity disorders, immunodeficiency, including HIV, development malformations, food allergies, and cystic diseases of the liver, esophageal and pancreatic disorders. The situation is the same and even worse for the elderly pathology patients. The major issue for the geriatric patients lies in the possibility to make a mistake in the diagnosis. This mistake possibility is at least 30% higher than for a pediatric pathologist. This is due to the atypical and even misleading physical findings. For instance we may view appendicitis complications in both of the age pathology groups. In childhood this illness, supported by some sort of pathology may be very serious for a child, but nevertheless it still will not cause death. Within the elderly population the situation is quiet different.

Conclusion: Appendicitis among patients with cardinal abnormalities and many others may cause lethal results. It usually produces left quadrant or epigastric pain, which causes the geriatric pathologist, make a detailed cordial examination and after no finding no cordial dysfunctions the geriatric patient is send away. Geriatric pathology patient may show not peculiar to a certain disease symptoms, which complicated the process of diagnosis arrival. “Pediatric pathology also includes the examination embryonic and fetal wastage, of different chromosomal abnormalities, congenital anomalies and malformation syndromes, vital aspects as inborn errors of metabolism, pediatric forensic pathology, and immunodeficiency disorders”[2]. This difference makes pediatric pathology as hard as geriatric pathology.The diagnostics is harder at the elderly age group, which makes geriatric pathology diagnostics a very hard and long process. At the same time the spheres of the pathologies in both of the branches of medicine are the same. The difficulty of the diagnostics within geriatric patients is substituted by the fatal and embryonic pathologies, which are entrusted to very professional pediatric pathologists. This gives these two branches of medicine completely different directions of medical research.