Perioperative morbidity and mortality of gynecological oncologic surgery in elderly women

The study compares the perioperative morbidity and mortality rates of elderly (> or =70 years) and younger (< 70 years) patients. The study cohort consisted of 171 women undergoing explorative laparotomy due to uterine or ovarian cancer. Clinical data included patients' age, comorbidities, chronic use of medications, body mass index (kg/m(2)), past and current surgical procedures, surgical FIGO stage, histologic type and number of dissected lymph nodes, optimal versus nonoptimal debulking, occurrence of perioperative complications, and postoperative hospital stay (days). Participants were divided to 108 (63.2%) patients with uterine cancer and 63 (36.8%) patients with ovarian cancer. Women having uterine cancer were further subdivided to those <70 years of age (72 women, 66.7%) and those > or =70 years of age (36 women, 33.3%). Women with ovarian cancer were subdivided to those <70 years of age (48 women, 76.2%) and those > or =70 years of age (15 women, 23.8%). Excluding the occurrence of postoperative ileus and poorly controlled hypertension in the elderly subgroup of women with uterine cancer, the rate of early postoperative complications was similar between the two subgroups. Chronological age by itself should not be a contraindication for the treatment of elderly women with gynecological malignancy since it is a poor predicting factor for perioperative morbidity.