Cardiac Surgery in Octogenarians

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Abstract

Background

The purpose of this study was to analize the preoperative status and the perioperative mortality and morbidity in a group of octogenarian patients submitted to cardiac surgery.MethodsFrom1990to1994, 44 octogenaries were operated upon being8L5years old as an average; 28 were males and 16 females. Thirty-one patients underwent coronary by pass surgery,9aortic valve surgery and4 combined procedures. The 90.9%got at least one of the following characteristics: emergency (7 patients), ventricular disfunction(18),left main coronary artery disease(11),previous myocardial infarction(24),functional class IV(25),systemic hypertension(31), diabetes(12),obesity(12),chronic occlusive lung disease (9), renal dysfunction(9), associated arterial occlusive disease (8) and previous stroke (2).ResultsHospital mortality rate was 13.6% and was related to emergency, left main coronary artery disease, ventricular disfunction and class IV function. Morbidity was 64.4% and mainly related to obesity and mammary artery grafts; 15.5 months average follow-up shows a survival rate of 88.9%, being 81.2% in functional class I-II.ConclusionsMortality rate was acceptable and related to previous cardiac status. Morbidity was high but reverted with appropriate medical treatment. Life quality improvement makes cardiac surgery an important tool in selected octogenarians when other medical treatment fail.