Treating rhinitis in the older population special considerations 英文参考文献.docVIP

Allergy, Asthma Clinical Immunology BioMedCentral Review Open Access Treating rhinitis in the older population: special considerations Raymond G Slavin Address: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Immunobiology, Section of Allergy Clinical Immunology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1402 South Grand Boulevard, M157, Saint Louis, MO 63104, USA Email: Raymond G Slavin - slavinrg@ Published: 1 December 2009 Received: 27 October 2009 Accepted: 1 December 2009 Allergy, Asthma Clinical Immunology 2009, 5:9 doi:10.1186/1710-1492-5-9 This article is available from: /content/5/1/9 ? 2009 Slavin; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Rhinitis in the elderly is a common but often neglected condition. Structural changes in the nose associated with aging, predisposes the elderly to rhinitis. There are a number of specific factors that affect medical treatment of the elderly including polypharmacy, cognitive dysfunction, changes in body composition, impairment of liver and renal function and the cost of medications in the face of limited resources. Rhinitis in the elderly can be placed in several categories and treatment should be appropriate for each condition. The most important aim is to moisten the nasal mucosa since the nose of the elderly is so dry. Great caution should be used in treatment with first generation antihistamines and decongestants. Medications generally well tolerated by the elderly are second generation antihistamines, intra-nasal anti-inflammatory agents, leukotriene modifiers and iprapropium nasal spray. Rhinitis is a common and bothersome condition in the elderly. Despite its importance, little attention is paid in the general me