Acute Geriatric Care: from Hospital to Territorial Charge

This book is focused on geriatric patients in critically ill conditions in the Emergency Room. Their percentage is very high, about 60% of the total percentage of patients, and the availability of intensive care admission is reduced for them as clearly shown during last Covid-19 pandemic. However, the modern approach is not yet able to stop the frailty cascade after hospitalization.
In this book authors offer an analysis to overcome this gap. The volume contains two main sections: in the first one, authors discuss recommendations and guidelines for setting organizations and treatment through different case reports of practical management of critically ill geriatric patients (especially patients treated with noninvasive ventilation). In the second part, they analyze the territorial networks that take charge of the older patients. Furthermore, a chapter will be reserved to a comparative investigation of the different types of hospital territorial integration in Europe. The book, written by renowned experts in their fields and by their teams, represents a new tool rich of suggestions for all those physicians involved in the management of this frail population.


Dr. Nicola Vargas is a geriatric and works as Director of a Geriatric and Intensive Geriatric Care Unit in Italy. He studied and applied the use of noninvasive ventilation in elderly patients. He has created an integration project between the geriatric hospital units and the local ones to guarantee a continuum of care for elderly patients in Avellino, Italy. He wrote many publications as the first author in peer-reviewed journals. He wrote many chapters and three books as an author and editor. He co-edited, together with Dr Antonio Esquinas, two volumes for Springer (Ventilatory Support and Oxygen Therapy in the Elder, Palliative and End-of-life Care, 2020; and Covid-19 airway Management and Ventilation Strategy for critically ill Older Patients, 2020); he is also author of Physical Activity and Function in older adults, Nova Medicine &Health, New York, 2019. Dr. Vargas was a speaker at many geriatric congresses and he teaches a three-year geriatric health course for undergraduate students in Physiotherapy and Nursing at the University of Naples as a member of the teaching site of San Giuseppe Moscati Hospital-Avellino. Dr Vargas is the President of the Regional Section Campania of SIGOT ( Italian National Geriatric of Hospital and Territorial Society ).

Dr. Andrea Fabbo is a geriatrician expert in dementia care and management (pharmacological therapies and psychosocial interventions) and quality of care organization, especially in long-term care; he works as head of Cognitive Disorders and Dementia Unit, Primary Care Department, Health Authority and Services of Modena, Italy. Dr. Fabbo is responsible for coordinating 10 Memory Clinic and specialized services for dementia (Day Centers and Special Care Unit for people living with dementia) in the Primary Care Department and Hospital (and local Municipalities. He is involved in Recharge Project (2018-2023), which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No779237.      Dr. Fabbo is a specialist registrar at 1)  School of Geriatrics, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia; 2) School of Occupational Therapy, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Neurological and Geriatric Services) and he is a consultant in the 'Dementia Project' for Emilia-Romagna Regional Government. Dr. Fabbo collaborates with Alzheimer's caregiver's associations on many projects (Alzheimer Uniti Italy Onlus, Federazione Alzheimer Italia) and with the European Interdem Group (Early detection and timely INTERvention in DEMentia). He is a member of the National Dementia Task Force (dedicated to the implementation of the National Dementia Plan) for the Ministry of Health and ISS (National Institute of Health) as representative of the Emilia Romagna Regional Government. In the last years, Dr. Fabbo has been working on the diffusion of the Dementia Friendly Community Model in some villages of Modena county with the collaboration of Federazione Alzheimer Italia.

Dr. Antonio M. Esquinas, MD, PhD, FCCP, FNIV, International fellow of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) and Fellow of the American Collage Chest Physicians (ACCP), is a critical care specialist and staff physician at the Intensive Care Unit at the Hospital Morales Meseguer, Murcia, Spain. He is the Director of the International School of Noninvasive Mechanical Ventilation (Spain), International College of Experts in Noninvasive Ventilation, Director, Academy of Noninvasive Ventilation and Director International Noninvasive Ventilation Fellowship Program and President of International Association of Noninvasive Ventilation and Member of the ERS College of Experts. His main research activities are related to noninvasive mechanical ventilation in pulmonary and critical care. Prof. Esquinas is the author of more than 670 scientific publications (402 on peer-reviewed journals), editor of 60 books (published in English, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese) and author of 325 chapters of book/position paper. He was invited speaker at 356 presentations and presented 450 oral communications or posters at national and international congresses. He acts in international networking groups promoting education programs and research in noninvasive ventilation.