• Francisco Valdés, Michel Bergoeing, Albrecht Krämer, Renato Mertens, Roberto Canessa, Guillermo Lema, Bernardita Garayar, and Jorge Urzúa.
• Departamento de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares, División de Cirugía, Facultad de Medicina, Hospital Clínico Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. franval@med.puc.cl
• Rev Med Chil. 2003 Sep 1; 131 (9): 981986981-6.

BackgroundAbdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) may be lethal unless appropriately and timely treated. Since age is a surgical risk, octogenarians are usually not considered as candidates for surgical intervention.AimTo asses surgical complications and mortality in octogenarians treated for AAA.Subjects And MethodsPatients aged 80 years older, treated consecutively between 1984-2001 were retrospectively analyzed.ResultsSixty one patients were male, and their age ranged from 80 to 95 years. All were treated with open surgery. The operation was elective in 58 and as an emergency in 22 patients (symptomatic or ruptured AAA). Aortic diameter was 6.8 +/- 1.4 cm in asymptomatic patients and 7.7 +/- 1.8 cm in emergency cases (p = 0.024). Thirty days postoperative mortality was 5.1% in elective surgery compared to 40.6% in emergency operations (p < 0.01). Five years survival rate was 44.7% in asymptomatic patients compared to 10.4% in the emergency cases (p < 0.023).ConclusionsElective surgery for asymptomatic AAA can be performed with low operative mortality in octogenarians. However, surgery in emergency cases has an 8 fold increase in risk. Accordingly, octogenarian patients should be considered for elective AAA repair in a selective basis.

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