The prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) dramatically increases with age, and COPD
complicated by chronic respiratory failure may be considered a geriatric condition. Unfortunately, most cases
remain undiagnosed because of atypical clinical presentation and difficulty with current respiratory function
diagnostic standards. Accordingly, the disease is under-recognized and undertreated. This is expected to
impact noticeably the health status of unrecognized COPD patients because a timely therapy could mitigate
the distinctive and important effects of COPD on the health status. Comorbidity also plays a pivotal role in
conditioning both the health status and the therapy of COPD besides having major prognostic implication.
Several problemsaffect the overall quality of the therapy for the elderlywith COPD, and current guidelines aswell
as results from pharmacological trials only to some extent apply to this patient. Finally, physicians of different
specialties care for the elderly COPD patient: physician's specialty largely determines the kind of approach.
In conclusion, COPD, in itself a complex disease, becomes difficult to identify and to manage in the elderly.
Interdisciplinary efforts are desirable to provide the practicing physician with a multidisciplinary guide to the
identification and treatment of COPD