Morbidity and mortality of surgery for endometrial cancer in the oldest old

Although endometrial cancer commonly occurs in elderly women, little is known about the perioperative outcomes of the oldest women (> 80 years of age) who are treated surgically.

We performed an analysis of women ≥ 65 years of age with endometrial cancer who underwent hysterectomy from 1998-2007 and who were registered in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.

A total of 25,698 women were identified. Compared with women who were 65-69 years old, women who were ≥ 85 years old were more likely to have perioperative surgical complications (12% vs 17%), postoperative medical complications (24% vs 34%), and a longer length of stay (3 vs 5 days) and to require a transfusion (6% vs 10%; P < .05 for all). The perioperative mortality rate was 0.4% in women who were 65-69 years old compared with 1.6% in women who were ≥ 85 years old (P < .0001).

The morbidity that is associated with surgery for endometrial cancer is significantly higher in women who are > 80 years old, even after medical comorbidities have been considered.