Cardiac surgery in octogenarians

The incidence of cardiac surgery in elderly patients has been increasing. Recent studies have shown that cardiac surgical procedures performed in octogenarians, in otherwise good physical and mental health, can improve mortality, morbidity, and quality of life. This study aimed to describe the preoperative clinical and demographic characteristics associated with immediate postoperative outcomes and determine whether intra-operative factors related to surgical and cardiopulmonary by-pass techniques impacted upon these. The results of cardiac surgeries performed at BM Birla Heart Research Centre, Kolkata for patients older than 80 years were retrospectively analysed between January 2009 and September 2011. Out of 61 cases, rate of hospital death, prolonged stay (length of stay > 14 days), return to intensive care unit were as follows: 2 (3.2%), 30 (49.1%), 3 (4.9%). Eight patients (13.1%) developed pulmonary, 5 (8.1%) renal and 1 (1.6%) gastro-intestinal complications. Two patients (3.2%) developed neurological defecit. Thus, newer techniques in cardiac surgical procedures are successful in most octogenarians with increased hospital morbidity, and longer hospital stay.