Objective: To guide pharmacists in identifying geriatric patients at risk, and providing education on the prevention and monitoring of calcium-alkali syndrome.
Data sources: Searches of MEDLINE and Google Scholar (1990-February 2014). Search terms included milk-alkali syndrome, calcium-alkali syndrome, hypercalcemia, calcium carbonate, geriatric patients, and elderly patients.
Study selection: Published articles and case reports were chosen for inclusion to provide evidence-based treatment and management of calcium-alkali syndrome in elderly patients.
Data synthesis: There are not many observational, prospective, and randomized studies focusing on treating calcium-alkali syndrome in geriatric patients. Information was extrapolated from four case-based studies focusing on geriatric individuals affected by calcium-alkali syndrome.
Conclusion: Conventional treatments used in the case studies were shown to be effective in treating geriatric patients affected by calcium-alkali syndrome. Use of case studies affects generalization and specific treatment and prevention strategies in the geriatric patient population. While more robust studies are still required to display definite treatments for geriatric patients, the case studies demonstrated resolution in health outcomes with conventional treatments. The use of optimized adult treatments and prevention strategies effectively improves health conditions in geriatric patients affected or susceptible to calcium-alkali syndrome.