Robert Moulias

General practitioners and specialists are increasingly called upon to examine elderly and very elderly patients. Until now, they have been ill-prepared for this highly specialized clinical approach, where each symptom can stem from multiple causes, where illnesses are almost always multifaceted, symptomatic, or poised to manifest as a complication, where one diagnosis can conceal another, and where medical history—key to diagnosis—may have been overlooked or concealed. This concise book allows physicians to master the approach to the elderly patient in a useful and, we hope, engaging way. It provides a clear understanding of the most common diagnoses at this age and how to avoid the pitfalls. This is neither an exhaustive treatise for specialists nor a quick reference guide for students in a hurry. The authors, from different generations, aim to share their experience as geriatricians with everyone. Readers can rediscover the importance of the clinical examination, the primary source of all diagnoses, regardless of age.