[Extragenital diseases in geriatric-gynecological surgical cases]

Of the surgical cases accumulated in 18 departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology in West Berlin from 1960 through 1969 6662 major procedures were performed on women of at least 60 years of age. In 282 cases (4,2%) surgery was carried out for primarily extragenital gynecological disorders: 119 malignant tumors, 16 benign tumors, and 147 other diseases of extragenital orgin. The postoperative mortality of these patients (89 deaths; 29,8%) was markedly higher than that observed for the whole group (7,7%). This difference may have been caused by the greater extensiveness of the underlying disease in the former group as well as the unsatisfactory utilization of preoperative diagnostic procedures found in some instances. The cooperation with surgeons prior to and during surgery may still be improved upon. In 98 patients (1,5%) operative procedures for additional surgical disorders were performed simultaneously. Especially in those cases where additional appendectomies were carried out, it appears that total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy might have been the treatment of choice for the underlying disease.