Cardiac surgery clinical outcomes in 70 years and over patients

To analyse the experience of a cardiac surgery centre with all types of cardiac interventions in the elderly in order to evaluate outcomes.

The retrospective study was conducted at Middle East Hospital, Mersin, Turkey, and comprised data of patients aged 70 years who underwent cardiac surgery from December 1, 2010, to March 31, 2016. Clinical outcomes, postoperative length of hospital stay and mortality rates were evaluated. SPSS version 15 software for Windows (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY) was used for data analysis.

Of the 1920 cases, 276(14.35%) patients were aged >70 years. Of them, 70(25.4%) were males and 206(74.6%) were females. The overall mean age was 71.39±2.26 years (range: 70-82 years). Coronary artery bypass grafting was the most frequent intervention 268(97%). Of the total, 6(2.2%) patients were treated urgently and 1(0.4%) was treated very urgently. The mortality rate was 8(2.9%) Preoperative and intraoperative findings didn't affect outcomes (p>0.05), but variables predicting mortality and length of hospital stay included operation priority, postoperative neurological and pulmonary complications and wound infection (p<0.05 each).

Morbidity and mortality rate was found to be acceptable in elderly patients who underwent cardiac surgery.