title: Acute appendicitis in the elderly. An analysis of 47 patients over 80 years of age.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To correlate the preoperative findings, perforation rate and the mortality rate after appendicectomy in the elderly age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Teaching hospital, Sweden.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-seven patients over 80 years of age who have undergone acute appendicectomy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Operative and postoperative outcome after acute appendicectomy in the elderly.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The complication rate after appendicectomy was statistically significantly increased to 28% as well as the mortality increased to 8.5% in the elderly patients when compared to the other age group. The perforation rate was also statistically significantly increased to 64% when compared to the same group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study shows that at the time of clinical symptoms, inflammatory parameters in acute appendicitis in the elderly do not differ from the young patient, but patients older than 80 years of age have a high risk of perforation, morbidity and mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Karolinska Institutet at Danderyd Hospital, S-18288 Danderyd, Sweden.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Styrud
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eriksson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007416:Intestinal Perforation; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous