A decade of experience with abdominal aortic aneurysm repair in octogenarians

Background. Should abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) be electively repaired in octogenarians? Methods. This was a retrospective review of patients' charts over a ten-yea r period starting in January 1995. This study was conducted at St. Francis Hospital, Roslyn, New York, which is a tertiary referral center. All octoge narians who underwent AAA repair (elective and emergent) were included in t his study (mean age 82.9 years). A total of 71 such patients were identifie d. Sixty-two patients had elective surgery and nine patients had emergent r epair of the ruptured AAA. It was hypothesized before the study was conduct ed that AAA could be repaired in octogenarians with acceptable morbidity an d mortality in an institution with vast experience in dealing with this dis ease. Results. The mean aneurysm diameter was 6.73 cm. Twenty patients (28%) rece ived bifurcated grafts, while 51 patients (72%) received tubular grafts. Fo ur patients had coronary artery bypass graft before aneurysm surgery. Forty -four patients (62%) were male and 27 (38%) were female. The thirty day mor tality rate after elective AAA repair was 1.4%, whereas after the repair of ruptured aneurysms was 44.4%. Conclusions. We concluded that the elective repair of abdominal aneurysms i n most octogenarians is a safe and life-prolonging procedure if performed i n an experienced tertiary center.