title: [Acute appendicitis in the elderly patient].
abstract: Presentation of 55 patients aged more than 65 years, appendectomized with the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. After histological study, we saw 6 normal cecal appendixes (10.9%), so the real number of acute appendicitis operated was 49 out of 435 (11.2%) interventions. The clinical history was typical in most of the patients and, nevertheless, we noticed a diagnostic delay greater than 24 hours in 31 (63.2%), and greater than 48 hours in 17 patients (34.6%). We verified the existence of a high percentage of perforated appendicitis (36.7%) closely related to a long evolution time, not being able to show, in the group studied, an increase of early appendix perforations in comparison with the rest. These results suggest that the high morbidity of acute appendicitis in old patients is due, to a great extent, to a delay in the performance of the appendectomy.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Cirugía General, Hospital del Insalud, Soria.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Monzón Abad
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Redondo Lázaro
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Osta Cornago
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ladrón Moreno
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fernández Fernández
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fornos Garrigos
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gómez Berne
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tieso Herreros
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001062:Appendectomy; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007416:Intestinal Perforation / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous; D013997:Time Factors
vernacular_title: Apendicitis aguda en el anciano.