Cardiac surgery and noncardiac surgery in elderly patients with heart disease.

The term "elderly" in the cardiac surgical experience refers to patients chronologically aged 2:70 years. Chronologic age is less important than physiologic age; in the physiologically aged patient, techniques used in most surgical procedures are likely to be attended by a markedly increased risk of morbidity and mortality (I). There are four aspects involved in a decision to perform a cardiac surgical procedure in an elderly patient. The first is the preoperative evaluation; the second, the surgical procedure; the third, the postoperative management in the hospital; and the fourth, long-term benefit to the individual elderly patient.