As the "Baby Boom" generation joins the ranks of Americans already 65 or older (now 13% of the population), the need for physicians and gerontologists who understand cardiovascular disease in the elderly will become critical. In Aging, Heart Disease, and Its Management: Facts and Controversies, a panel of world renowned clinicians from the foremost academic institutions review the best therapies and surgical techniques available to provide quality care for the elderly cardiac patient, and highlight the controversial areas that require further research. Their survey details preventive therapies and the cardiovascular syndromes that disproportionately afflict the older individual, including arrhythmias (particularly atrial fibrillation), syncope, heart failure (particularly diastolic heart failure), and ischemic heart disease. They also delineate the surgical management of the heart patient, with discussions of postoperative management and its complications, and such specific operative procedures as coronary artery bypass grafting, valve surgery, pacemakers and defibrillators, and surgical management of heart failure. Additional chapters guide the clinician through the major nutritional, neurological, pharmacologic, psychiatric, ethical, and rehabilitation issues that contribute significantly to the quality of care of the elderly.Comprehensive and authoritative, Aging, Heart Disease, and Its Management: Facts and Controversies offers today's clinicians not only an up-to-date survey of the latest therapies and surgical techniques available for treating the special cardiovascular problems of the elderly, but also an examination of those areas of medical controversy in need of further investigation.

I Epidemiology, Demographics, and Health Care Policy.- 1 Demography and Epidemiology: An Examination of Cardiovascular Disease in the Elderly.- 2 The Evolution of the American Health Care System.- II Fundamentals of Caring for the Elderly.- 3 Nutritional Needs of the Elderly.- 4 Pharmacological Management of the Older Patient.- 5 Psychiatric Issues in the Care of the Elderly Cardiothoracic Surgery Patient.- 6 Neurological Aspects of Caring for the Aged.- 7 Cardiac Rehabilitation in the Older Patient.- 8 Ethical Issues in the Elderly.- III Cardiovascular Care for the Elderly.- 9 Cardiovascular Changes with Aging.- 10 Risk Factors and the Prevention of Heart Disease.- 11 Arrhythmias in the Elderly: With an Emphasis on Atrial Fibrillation.- 12 Syncope in the Elderly.- 13 Ischemic Heart Disease.- 14 Heart Failure: With an Emphasis on Diastolic Heart Failure.- IV Cardiac Surgical Care for the Elderly.- 15 Surgical Treatment of Ischemic Heart Disease in the Elderly.- 16 Surgical Treatment of Heart Failure in the Elderly.- 17 Cardiac Pacing and Defibrillators.- 18 Postoperative Management of the Geriatric Patient.- 19 Incidence and Management of Complications of Surgical Treatment in the Elderly.- 20 Valvular Heart Disease in the Elderly Population.