Introduction: With the rise in the number of elderly persons in the population, the need for general surgery is increasing. There are many problems facing older people undergoing surgical operations, and age, along with other risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, and renal failure, results in multiple postoperative complications, increasing mortality and morbidity rates. Moreover, older individuals need good health care. However, not enough studies are performed in this area of surgery. We aim to measure the rate of general surgery in the elderly and describe the risk factors and surgical outcomes.
Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on surgeries occur between (2014 to 2018) involving elderly patients (60 years and older) undergoing general surgery at king Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Data were collected from the hospital’s medical records system. Our results were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 21.0) including Pearson’s chi-square and correlation to define the relationship between variables.
Results: Among the 920 patients, the most common surgery performed on men was hernia repair; on women, cholecystectomy. Some complications appeared to be significant such as wound and respiratory infections. Out of all surgeries, exploratory laparotomy showed the highest mortality rates. In addition, there was a strong relationship between the duration of surgery and length of hospital stay.
Conclusion: There is an association between older age and higher rates of complications and mortality. That is due to older persons’ declining body physiology along with reduced physical activity.
We recommend multi-centered research studies and more optimization in preoperative assessment to improve our outcomes
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2022: 6.012
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