[Results of abdominal surgery in patients over 90 years old]

During a year period (1978-1987), 105 cases of abdominal surgery were performed at Sasebo Chuo Hospital on patients over 80 years of age. This study discusses 4 patients who were over 90 years old at time of their surgery. Emergency surgery had been required for 2 patients (a 91-year-old male with a sigmoid colon ca., and a 91-year-old female with a descending colon ca.), and elective surgery had been performed on the other two patients (a 95-year-old male with a caecum ca., and a 97-year-old female with a leiomyosarcoma of stomach). The patients who underwent elective surgery had a uniformly smoother hospital course and an overall better prognosis then the patients who underwent emergency surgery, whose prognosis was poor. We have concluded that early diagnosis and elective surgery is the necessary procedure in the elderly patient.