How old is too old for heart bypass surgery

Results: Eighty-seven patients underwent coronary artery grafting and two patients had mitral valve replacement. The operative mortality rate was The complication rate was Conclusions: Cardiac surgery can be performed in patients 85 years and older with good results. Nash, chairman of the department of health policy at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. To see how well older people fare, Spertus and his colleagues asked people undergoing coronary bypass surgery to assess their quality of life and physical functioning before surgery and one year later.

One hundred fifty-six of them were over The research team also asked the first volunteers to complete monthly questionnaires in the first six months after surgery. Of the 16 surgery-related deaths that occurred, four involved older patients.

The mortality rate for the elderly was 2. Patients over 75 also were more likely to die in the year after surgery than those under Yet despite a slower recovery period, people over 75 fared just as well as the younger group, realizing similar relief from symptoms, improvement in physical function, and quality of life.

What remains unclear is how older people who have bypass fare compared with people of their age group who pursue alternatives to surgery, such as angioplasty, says Edward Hannan, chairman of the department of health policy, management and behavior at the University of Albany School of Public Health in Albany, N. Ideally, he says, more research is needed to compare outcomes at one year, five years, and 10 years after the procedures.

Those studies should look at death rates, complications, need for revascularization, and long-term survival. In general, people who are really bothered by the symptoms of angina are good candidates, Spertus says. Patients considering bypass also should make sure their physicians have ruled out surgical alternatives, like angioplasty with stenting, surgeons say.

In addition, bypass candidates who suffer from other health problems, such as lung disease and diabetes, need to be advised of the increased risk that surgery poses for them, says Dr. This in turn reduces their ability to cope with acute and every day stressors. In a frail person, there is an accumulation of defects in different organ systems of the body, causing them to function close to the threshold of failure.

An apparently small insult such as a simple fall can result in a significant and disproportionate reduction in reserve and function. The need to have surgery, and the condition that has caused a need for surgery, would often be considered a large insult in a frail person.

Most frail people have chronic health problems, and their frailty increases with the number of chronic health conditions. But most people with chronic health conditions are not frail. There are certain health conditions that are more common in people who are frail, such as heart failure, chronic airways disease and chronic kidney disease.

Read more: Surgery isn't always the best option, and the decision shouldn't just lie with the doctor. There are many different tools we can use to detect frailty. The Clinical Frailty Scale is one tool based on clinical features present in the patient and the Frailty Index is another tool based on the accumulation of deficits in the patient. It has been observed that people with a higher Clinical Frailty Scale were more likely to be older, female, have a degree of cognitive impairment and incontinence.

The higher proportion of females will most likely reflect the longer life expectancy of women.