[Emergency surgery in patients over eighty]

The authors describe a series of 139 over-eighty patients (M = 53, F = 86), who underwent emergency surgery between 1-1-1987 and 30-6-1993. They consider diagnosis, copathology, type of surgical procedures, postoperative complications and final results. In this series they study 73 large bowel obstruction and 48 peritonitis. They notice important copathologies in 78% of patients, in particular cardiovascular diseases. They performed 74 mayor surgical procedures with 48% of postoperative complications and exitus in 24% of cases, due overall to exacerbation of coexisting diseases. The authors underline the direct between mortality rate and number of copathologies, and analyze the basic rules to follow in surgical indications and during the postoperative period.