Surgical procedures in patients aged 90 years and older

During the past five years 75 patients aged 90 years or more had 85 major surgical procedures at the Metropolitan Nashville General and Vanderbilt University hospitals. The most common operation was exploratory laparotomy. The second was lower extremity amputation for peripheral vascular disease and/or gangrene. Fifty-seven percent had general endotracheal anesthesia. Associated medical problems were common, and included congestive heart failure (24%), hypertension (21%), diabetes mellitus (13%), chronic arrhythmias (9%), history of myocardial infarction (8%), and history of cerebrovascular accident (5%). Eleven patients (13.4%), six of whom had general anesthesia, died after operation. Of these, two had postoperative pneumonia, two did not recover from bowel perforation and peritonitis, one had a postoperative myocardial infarction, another had a cerebrovascular accident, and one had sepsis. One patient's sudden death was likely due to myocardial infarction or pulmonary embolus. The other three deaths occurred in patients with extensive carcinomas (gallbladder carcinoma in one and widely metastatic carcinoma of unknown origin in two). These three patients died of the disease for which they were operated upon when the operation failed to alter its course. When surgical procedures are necessary to prolong and/or improve the quality of life in elderly patients, these procedures may be done in most cases with acceptable results.