Short-and long-term outcomes of surgery for diffuse peritonitis in patients 80 years of age and older.
OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the impact of advanced age on the morbidity, mortality, and long-term outcome after emergency surgery for diffuse peritonitis.


METHODS
We retrospectively evaluated the mortality and morbidity rates in 36 patients who were 80 years of age or older and who had undergone emergency surgery for diffuse peritonitis, and calculated 5-year survival by the Kaplan-Meier method. Factors compromising prognosis were identified by univariate and multivariate analyses.


RESULTS
The median patient age was 84 years (range, 80-97 years); 16 patients were men and 20 were women. Preoperative concomitant disease was present in 81% of patients; cardiac disease was most common. Sites of visceral perforation were in the upper gastrointestinal tract in five patients, colon or rectum in 30, and gallbladder in 1. The postoperative morbidity rate was 72%, the surgical mortality rate was 11%, and the in-hospital mortality rate was 28%. The median hospital stay was 56 days. The median survival was 41 months, with a 5-year survival rate of 23%. A multivariate analysis identified number of failing organs as the only independent adverse prognostic factor (P < 0.001; relative risk 5.51, 95% confidence interval 1.97-15.4).


CONCLUSIONS
Elderly patients with diffuse peritonitis had an unsatisfactory rate of short-term morbidity and mortality compared with those undergoing elective surgery. Postoperative organ failure was most likely to compromise survival.
Department of Surgery, Niigata Saiseikai Daini Hospital, Niigata, Japan.
Ryoko
R
Okubo
Kazuhito
K
Yajima
Yasuo
Y
Sakai
Tomoki
T
Kido
Ken-Ichiro
K
Hirano
Nobuyuki
N
Musha
Toshihiro
T
Tsubono
Katsuyoshi
K
Hatakeyama
D000367:Age Factors; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005705:Gallbladder Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007416:Intestinal Perforation / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D009026:Mortality; D010538:Peritonitis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome