title: A 5-year survival study of general surgical patients aged 65 years and over.
abstract: A prospective 5-year survival study of 900 patients, aged 65 years and over, undergoing a general surgical procedure, demonstrated that following an initial high mortality rate the survival of the group as a whole approached that of an age-matched population. Non-elective admissions, age 75 years and over, ASA grade 4-5 and major surgery were associated with a high early mortality. Mortality associated with malignancy extended over 1 year. The study reinforces the conclusion that age alone should be no bar to surgery and anaesthesia, endorses the findings of the National Confidential Enquiry into Peri-operative deaths and emphasises the need to re-examine the provision of anaesthetic and surgical services in District General Hospitals. The benefits of elective admission in the very old are highlighted, along with the potential for extension of day case surgery.
authors.affiliation: Wrexham Maelor Hospital, Aberdeen.
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Seymour
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Crumplin
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000401:mortality*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate