Gynaecologic surgery on elderly patients

To evaluate the risks associated with gynaecologic operations on elderly patients (60 years or over) we performed this retrospective study of 573 operations. More than half the patients (53%) were operated on because of uterine prolapse. An abdominal operation was done in 33%, a vaginal approach in 59% and a combined abdominal and vaginal procedure in 9%. (he total amount of postoperative complications was 26% and higher after abdominal (36%) than vaginal operation (19%). Most complications were mild, e.g. fever (16%) and wound complications (4%). Five patients (0.87%) died within one month postoperatively, but only in two cases was death caused by postoperative complication itself, namely cardiac infarction and pulmonary embolism. It appears that our procedures based on co-operation between gynaecologist, internist and anaesthetist yield good results and that the chronologic age in itself is only seldom a contraindication to operative treatment.