Envejecimiento y Medicina Intensiva

The repercussion of aging on health care and importance that the consideration of the preferences of the patients, their quality of life and costeffectiveness analyses of the different therapies applied must have are analyzed. A short reflection is made on aspects of therapeutic effort limitation and of the hypothetical limits of human longevity. Analysis of a review of the scientific evidence on intensive care attention to elderly patients and of the results of the application of techniques such as mechanical ventilation to this population is put forward. It is concluded that age alone should not be a limiting factor in the application of intensive care to elderly patients, the consideration of the quality of life previous and posterior to the episode motivating such action being the elements of primary judgment.