Coronary artery bypass grafting in octogenarians

Preoperative profiles, postoperative complications, and the early and late results in 32 patients 80 yrs of age and older (elderly group) who underwen t coronary artery bypass grafting were compared with those in patients unde r 80 yrs of age (control group). In the elderly group, the prevalence of pa tients with preoperative creatinine clearance (Ccr.) < 50 1/day (34.4%), un stable angina pectoris (78.1 %) and left main trunk disease (40.1 %) was si gnificantly higher than those in the control group. The incidences of arrhy thmia and intensive care unit(ICU) syndrome were also significantly higher in the elderly group than in the control group, however, there was no death due to these complications. In the elderly group. one patient (3.1 %) died in the hospital due to low cardiac output syndrome (LOS), while three pati ents (2.4 %) of the control group died in the hospital. As for the long-ter m results, the 5-yr survival rates for the elderly group and the control gr oup were 82.6 % and 85.2 %. respectively, and the effectiveness of surgery was remarkable, with improved postoperative activity in 96.9 % of the elder ly group. These findings indicate that although the elderly patients have h igher risks by undergoing surgery and have a disadvantage in the rate of po stoperative complications, the postoperative improvement in activity and su rvival rate can be similar to those in the younger patients. (C) 2001 The I nternational Society for Cardiovascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.