COLORECTAL-CANCER IN PATIENTS OVER THE AGE OF 80 YEARS

Between January 1, 1973 and December 31, 1986, 1.734 patients underwen t colorectal resections for carcinoma. The patients were divided into two groups: group I included 163 patients > 80 years on first presenta tion ; group II comprised 1.571 patients < 80 years. The total periope rative mortality rates of the elderly and younger group were 15.3 perc ent and 5 percent respectively (p < 0.001). The surgical mortality rat es in group I were 7.4 percent after elective operations versus 4.5 pe rcent in group II and were not statistically different. Emergency surg ery was associated with a significantly higher incidence of perioperat ive deaths at any age (p < 0.001). In the elderly group, most deaths ( 88 %) resulted from complications of coexisting medical disorders or t hromboembolic complications. The 5 year survival for the young and eld erly groups were 46.2 percent and 35 percent respectively (p < 0.05). However, excluding patients dying from nonmalignant disease, the 5 yea r survival rate did not differ significantly between the two groups of patients (49.5 percent versus 42.2 percent).