[Digestive surgery in the elderly]

The dramatic increase in digestive surgery among patients of advanced age is the logical consequence of the aging population demographics in developed countries. Surgery in the aged is not fundamentally different, but it demands precise and tailored assessment and management of surgical indications and surgical and anesthetic techniques. Advanced age is not a contraindication to even major digestive surgery, but every effort must be made to avoid urgent operations by attention to pre-existing symptoms which are all-too-often neglected in the aged. Intensive care may help to shorten the hospital stay which should ideally occupy only a minor portion of the numbered days of the patient (whose life expectancy may be significantly longer than one may intuitively foresee).