Withdrawing long-term diuretic treatment among elderly patients in general practice.
prospective_cohort · Level II
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 8477891.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to elaborate, implement and evaluate a strategy for discontinuation of long-term diuretic treatment in elderly patients in general practice. Thirty-three patients were enrolled for a supervised step-down and withdrawal of diuretics. After withdrawal, the patients were followed up for 6 months or until diuretic treatment was re-established. Withdrawal was successful according to the protocol in 18 cases. Diuretic withdrawal failed and the treatment was re-established in 15 cases, four of which were sudden cardiovascular events. Most withdrawal failures were identified by routine examinations through the follow-up programmes, thus they had few consequences for the patients. This demonstrates that careful follow-up is essential after diuretic withdrawal. Our findings support the view that a large proportion of elderly patients on diuretics may not need such treatment.