[Major digestive surgery in octogenarians. A prospective study of 54 cases]

The interest in geriatric surgery is on the increase because of the ageing of the population. Our study reviewed the results of a non- specialised unit. Method 54 octogenarians underwent digestive surgery including visceral resection. Cancer predominated the indications (80%).

The patients exhibited cardiovascular (87%), endocrine (18.5%) or neuropsychiatric (29.6%) disorders with 75% scoring ASA III or IV. Morbidity was of 81.5% with 20% of specifically surgical complications and a 40.2% rate of cardiovascular complications. Post-surgical mortality was of 7.4% and the survival rate at 2 years was of 44.4%. The treating physicians judged that in 65% of patients the intervention had improved the initial status of the patient and had stabilised the disease in 35% of cases. The percentage of patients living at home declined from 83.3% before the intervention to 64.8% after the intervention. Only 2 out of the 9 patients having undergone stomy of the colon following colectomy continued to improve.

This study underlines the interest of major surgery in octogenarians, including in units non-specialised in geriatric surgery.