[Cardiac failure in the geriatric patient].

Cardiac insufficiency is a disease of old age. Analyses of subgroups have showed that old patients benefit to a particular extent from therapeutic measures the effectiveness of which has been confirmed in numerous studies. In the light of this knowledge, it is all the more difficult to understand why this group of patients are still not receiving effective treatment. In this area, there is an urgent need for improvement. Also difficult to understand is the fact that the guidelines for the treatment of chronic cardiac failure issued by the German Cardiology Society pay so little attention to cardiovascular research of cardiac insufficiency in old age, and thus bear indirect responsibility for the less than optimal treatment of this condition, which can be so severe in the old patient. These guidelines should contain a section on the peculiarities of cardiac insufficiency in high old age.