Why the study?
What is the 5-year survival of patients aged 65 years and over undergoing general surgical procedures?
What is the 5-year survival of patients aged 65 years and over undergoing general surgical procedures?
Age alone should not be a barrier to surgery and anesthesia, as long-term survival in older surgical patients approaches that of an age-matched population after the initial perioperative period.
Supports cautious optimism for long-term survival in older surgical patients; leaves open whether elective status modifies early mortality risk.
A prospective 5-year survival study of 900 patients, aged 65 years and over, undergoing a general surgical procedure, demonstrated that following an initial high mortality rate the survival of the group as a whole approached that of an age-matched population. Non-elective admissions, age 75 years and over, ASA grade 4-5 and major surgery were associated with a high early mortality. Mortality associated with malignancy extended over 1 year. The study reinforces the conclusion that age alone should be no bar to surgery and anaesthesia, endorses the findings of the National Confidential Enquiry into Peri-operative deaths and emphasises the need to re-examine the provision of anaesthetic and surgical services in District General Hospitals. The benefits of elective admission in the very old are highlighted, along with the potential for extension of day case surgery.
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Edwards et al. (1996) studied this question.
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