[Abdominal surgery in patients aged over 90 years old at a provincial general hospital]

It has been commonly accepted that age itself is never an absolute contraindication for surgical treatment. Some many problems could be solved through surgical intervention, we studied perioperative status, postoperative morbidity and mortality, and short-and-long-term outcomes after abdominal surgery in a series of patients 90 year old or older, operated at a provincial General Hospital. Seven patients were treated using elective surgical procedures, while 6 had emergency surgery. The incidence of postoperative morbidity was fairly high after both elective and emergency operations. Major complications occurred in one patient who died on the 20th postoperative day, due to multiple organ failure. One case of hospital death occurred when a patient died on the 240th day after a gastrectomy. There was long-term survival of over five years occurred among the patients in the study who had reviewed elective operations for malignant lesions. No definite relation was revealed between the risk score and post-operative morbidity or mortality. No evident change in performance status was found even aged patient who underwent abdominal surgical procedures. These results indicate the need for more meticulous consideration, including more precise decisions regarding the indication for surgical intervention, and more intensive perioperative management, in order to secure more favorable therapeutic outcomes and quality of life for high-risk patients over 90 year of age.