[Geriatric urology : Increasingly important in urological care].

Urology will benefit by demographic change more than other disciplines in the next 10 years. Both number of patients and their intensity of treatment will increase. This implies the need of a reorientation of urology away from oncologic topics towards geriatric urology. Relevant issues are functional disorders of the lower urinary tract, infectiology, hematuria, and benign prostate hyperplasia. The legislature of North Rhine-Westphalia has already made the first step towards geriatric urology by the foundation of the ISAR screening for each geriatric patient outside geriatrics, which constitutes the possibility of beginning an early interdisciplinary dialogue. Considering the geriatric patient as being defined by age, multimorbidity, multimedication, and the resulting vulnerability, there are new fields of work in urology. These lie in research areas such as cognitive alterations after urologic surgery or medications and the adjustment of urologic methods to the specific requirements of these patients.