Cardiovascular Evaluation in Geriatric Surgery

Abstract

No patient who requires an operation should be permitted to die simply because he is considered too old to live. Improvements in anesthesia and surgical procedures and the discovery of antibiotics have resulted in more and more operations being performed on elderly patients and a mortality rate that is only slightly higher than that in cases in which the patients are younger. Electrocardiography, ballistocardiography, and determination of the mental status and vital capacity of the patient are useful in evaluating the surgical risk in cases in which the patients are aged.