What is the 30-day mortality for different types of emergency surgery in patients aged >80 years?
Emergency surgery should not be denied to patients over 80 based solely on age, as survival is excellent for routine procedures.
The present study suggests that emergency surgery should not be denied to subjects aged >80 years based on age alone. Mortality varies according to the type of emergency procedure. Mortality was highest after laparotomy and vascular surgery whereas, for more routine procedures such as hernia repair and abscess drainage, survival was almost 100% after 30 days.
Khan-Kheil et al. (Wed,) studied this question.