Colorectal disease : the official journal of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland
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Reduced hospital stay confers clinical and economic benefits for patients and healthcare providers. This article examines the length of stay and consequent bed resource usage of patients undergoing elective excisional colorectal surgery in English NHS trusts. ⋯ Patients of advanced age, with associated comorbidities, and those living in areas of social deprivation are at increased risk of prolonged stay. Targeted pre-emptive discharge planning and enhanced use of laparoscopic surgery could improve bed resource utilization.
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This study was primarily aimed to quantify perioperative mortality risk in elderly patients undergoing elective colonic resectional surgery. In addition, the safety of minimally invasive colonic surgery in this patient group was evaluated. ⋯ Advancing age is an independent risk factor for postoperative death in elderly patients undergoing elective colonic resection for cancer. The risk of death in the elderly is extremely high and surgical decision-making should incorporate the mortality risk that occurs outside the immediate perioperative period. In this national series, patients selected for a laparoscopic procedure were at lower risk of perioperative death than those undergoing the conventional approach.