[Acute surgical abdomen in middle and old age]

Proceeding from a comprehensive literature survey the urgency of acute abdomen conditions in elderly and senile patients is thoroughly discussed. Not infrequently, geriatric surgeons face serious difficulties of diagnostic and therapeutic character relating to the severity of clinical picture and elevated postoperative lethality, explaining in turn the great surge of interest in the problem. Recent achievements along this line, surgery in particular, provide for adequate conditions for performing early surgical interventions with reduced intraoperative risk in elderly and old age patients presenting acute abdomen.