Results of emergency colectomy in nonagenarians and octogenarians previously labeled as prohibitive surgical risk

There are no standardized criteria for what constitutes prohibitive risk for emergency abdominal surgery.

A retrospective review was performed comparing two groups of patients having emergent colectomy. One group had previously been labeled as being prohibitive surgical risk and the other was a contemporary, non-prohibitive risk group also requiring emergency colectomy. All operations were performed by a single surgeon.

There were 27 prohibitive risk patients and 81 non-prohibitive risk (control group) patients. The average age of the prohibitive risk group was 85 years (range 78-99) compared to the control group mean age of 52 years (18-79, p < 0.00001). Prohibitive risk was due to extremes of age combined with congestive heart failure in 44%, followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease combined with heart failure in 19%. The groups were closely matched by the type of colectomy performed. The total complication rate was much higher in the prohibitive risk group compared to the non-prohibitive risk patients (81% versus 48%, p 0.005). But the 30-day mortality rate was similar between groups (7% versus 4%, p 0.6).

Patients who are labeled as prohibitive surgical risk may be inaccurately assessed in the majority of cases. Additional research will need to be performed to evaluate the presence of quantifiable high-risk physiological conditions, and not just comorbidities, that place a patient at high risk of death after abdominal surgery. Until then, elderly patients should not be denied colectomy based upon comorbidities alone.