Short-term and long-term results of cardiac surgery in elderly and very elderly patients

Objective: Cardiac operations in elderly patients are increasingly frequent and imply major clinical, ethical, and economic issues. Operative and 5-year results of cardiac operations in patients aged 79 years or more are known in limited series, and a debate is ongoing on the appropriateness of selection of patients for surgery. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our experience in 6802 patients aged 79 years or more who had received a cardiac operation. Surgical candidates were selected according to functional status, crude operative risk, and social context and were managed according to a multimodality protocol. Results: Mean age was 82 years and surgery was nonelective in 1613 cases (23…