Cardiac surgery for over eighty: five years of experience

Background. Cardiac surgery in octogenarians is increasing in industrialized countries and therefore represents a growing population. The aim of this study was to evaluate characteristics and outcomes of octogenarian patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Methods. We reviewed all consecutive octogenarians operated on during the last 5 years. Among 1912 patients operated on between April 2000 and December 2004, we identified 223 patients (11.6%) aged > 80 years. Median age was 82.17 +/- 2.11 years, and 52.5% were males. The mean EuroSCORE score was 9.4 +/- 1.8. Among them 43 patients (19.3%) had isolated aortic valve replacement, 127 patients (57%) had isolated coronary artery bypass graft, 40 patients (17.9%) had aortic valve replacement combined with coronary artery bypass graft, 11 patients (4.9%) had mitral valve repair, and 2 patients (0.9%) had ventricular septal rupture repair. Results. The overall hospital mortality was 5.4%; cumulative actuarial survival at 4 years was 77.6%. Conclusions. We conclude that for unselected octogenarians the operative mortality is acceptable and only slightly increased than in younger age groups; the late survival rate is good.