Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2005 , Vol 8, Issue 3
EMERGENCY ABDOMINAL SURGERY IN PATIENTS AGED 80 YEARS AND OLDER
Barış ZÜLFİKAROĞLU, Necdet ÖZALP, Mehmet KEŞKEK, İsmail BİLGİÇ, Mahmut KOÇ
Ankara Numune Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi 5. Genel Cerrahi Kliniği ANKARA Background: The number of elderly patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery is increasing. The outcome of emergency abdominal surgery in elderly patients remains unsatisfactory. We compared the outcome and complications of emergency abdominal surgery in patients aged 80 years and older with those aged 65-79 years.

Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analysed our records during last six years. We reviewed 243 patients operated for emergency abdominal pathology at Ankara Numune Hospital. Of these 56 patients were aged 80 years and older (group A) while 187 patients were aged 65-79 years (group B). The medical records of the 243 patients were reviewed to ases preexisting concomitant disease, preoperative systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), postoperative complications, outcome, and causes of death.

Results: We found that postoperative complications and mortality in patients aged 80 years and older with preoperative SIRS was significantly higher than in patients without preoperative SIRS. Postoperative complications and mortality in patients 65-79 years old with SIRS was higher than in those without, but not statistically significantly.

Conclusion: Our data suggest that SIRS is a good predictor of poor outcome in patients aged 80 years and older who undergo emergency abdominal surgery. Keywords : Emergency abdominal surgery, Elderly patients, Preexisting disease, Systemic inflammatory response syndrome