A Clinical Study of Geriatric Anesthesia

Oh, Hye Ran; Chae, Byung Kuk; Choi, Young Seok; Shin, Jung Soon

Abstract

In contrast to younger patients, geriatric patients are generally considered to be a poor risk for anesthesia and surgery and greater care should be taken in anesthetic management, because many have chronic systemic diseases in addition to a decrease in physiologic function. To evaluate geriatric anesthetic experiences, we received clinical records of 1,062 patients aged over 65 out of 21,656 surgical cases performed at Korea University Hye-Wha Hospital from January 1980 to December 1986. The cases were analysed according to age, sex, department, preoperative physical status, anesthetic techniques and agents, duration of anesthesia, operation site, length of hospital stay, laboratory data(Chest X-ray, EKG), associated diseases, postoperative complications and mortality. The results are as follows: 1) Of the 1,062 geriatric surgical patients, 516 cases(48.6%) were 65~69 years of age. 2) The number of geriatric surgical cases was 1,062 of which 672(63.3%) were male and 390(36.7%) were female. 3) Most surgical cases were general surgery(401 cases, 37.8%). 4) The rate of elective and emergency surgery was 78.0%(829 cases) and 22.0%(233 cases), respectively. The ratio of insurance patients (737 cases, 69.4%) versus noninsurance patients(325 cases, 30.6%) was approximately 2:1. 5) The number of general anesthesia cases was 777 (73.2%), spinal anesthesia 244( 23.0%), epidural anesthesia, 21(.20%), and brachial plexus block, 5( 0.5%). The anesthetics were thalamonal and meperidine hydrochloride(238 cases, 22.4%), halothane(204 cases, 19.2%) and tetracaine(244 cases, 23.0%). 6) The duraion of anesthesia was within 1hour in 88 cases( 8.3%), 1~2 hours in 421 cases(39.6%), and 2~3 hours in 291 cases(27.4%). 7) The number of lower abdominal surgery cases was 497 (46.8%) and the number of upper abdominal surgery cases was 188(17.7%). 8) Preoperative laboratory findings were as follows: The findings of preoperative chest X-rays revealed that 219 cases(21.4%) were within normal mits. 182 cases(17.8%) had hypertensive heart, and 208 cases(20.4%) had atherosclerosis. The EKG, which was done on 90.8% of the patients, revealed that 333 cases (34.5%) were within normal limits, 77 cases(8.0%) showed left ventricular hypertrophy, 65 cases(6.7%) showed sinus bradycardia, and 27 cases(2.8%) showed myocardial ischemia. 9) Hypertension(88cases, 49.4%) was the most commonly associated disease. 10) The total number of postoperative complication cases was 73(6.9%). Seventeen cases showed wound infection and delayed skin closure, 19 cases showed pneumonia, and 7 cases showed atelectasis. 11) The total number of postoperative deaths was 18 cases(1.7%).