Comparison of postoperative morbidity in elderly patients who underwent pancreatic resection.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Operative indications for pancreatectomy in elderly patients with pancreatic disease remain controversial. We examined clinicopathological characteristics and early outcomes in each generation of 147 patients who underwent pancreatectomy. METHODOLOGY Patients were divided into four groups: Group 1 (n=15, 10%), young patients <50 years old; Group 2 (n=65; 44%), patients at 50- 69 years old; Group 3 (n=61, 42%), patients at 70-79 years old and Group 4 (n=6, 4%), elderly patients >80 years old. Clinicopathological and surgical parameters were examined, including estimation of physiological ability and surgical stress consisting of preoperative risk score (PRS), surgical stress score (SSS) and comprehensive risk score (CRS). RESULTS Prevalence of co-morbidity and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score increased significantly with increasing patient age (p<0.05). Extent of pancreatectomy and lymphadenectomy did not differ between groups and surgical records were similar. Tumor stage, postoperative course and complications were similar between groups. PRS and CRS increased significantly with increasing patient age (p<0.05) but SSS did not. Univariate analysis identified presence of systemic comorbidity, ASA score =2 and PRS =0.32 as factors associated with postoperative complications, but no independent predictive parameters were identified on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS Careful management and adequate decisions regarding pancreatectomy upon identification of co-morbidity, ASA score and PRS are important in elderly patients with pancreatic disease before pancreatectomy.