Key result
Cardiac surgery yields excellent long-term outcomes in older adults despite higher financial costs.
Why the study?
Cardiac surgery is increasingly offered to older patients, but decision-making and care require strategy modifications and there is reluctance to consider elderly patients for surgery.
Supports tailored decisions in elderly cardiac surgery without agreed geriatric definitions; leaves open standardized criteria for future trials.
Like all medical specialties that deal with degenerative disease, cardiac surgery is increasingly being offered to older patients. This is driven by longer life expectancy, an increase in the prevalence of degenerative cardiac lesions, a substantial improvement in cardiac surgical results and competition from interventional cardiology in younger patient groups. Although there is no agreed definition of "geriatric", decision-making and the conduct of surgery and postoperative care in the elderly all require some modification of strategy to ensure the best results. Excellent outcomes can now be achieved (albeit at greater financial cost) in the older population, and these results hold well in the long term. Current trends suggest that both the provision and range of cardiac surgical services for the elderly may increase further. Despite this, there is still evidence of reluctance in considering older patients for cardiac surgery.
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Samer A.M. Nashef (2007) conducted a review in Degenerative cardiac lesions in the elderly. Cardiac surgery was evaluated. Cardiac surgery is increasingly offered to older patients with excellent long-term outcomes, though it requires modified strategies and incurs greater financial costs.
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