Tag Archives: very elderly

Patient selection The issues involved in making the decision to undergo surgery are complex as the elderly and very elderly cohort of patients present with more diffuse cardiovascular disease, age-related comorbidities, weaker tissues and frailty, with a lower tolerance to intervention. The challenge is accurately predicting and sharing with those elderly patients the chances of improving or worsening their quality of life. With novel methods of assessing frailty, such as sarcopenia measurement,1 a more refined approach to patient selection is evolving. Ishikawa et al. have found that the operative mortality of octogenarians presenting for e

Introduction Little observational data exist on the outcome of diagnostic cardiac catheterisation (DCC) in older people. In England and Wales, the population aged over 80 years is growing faster than any other age group.1DCC in these older patients may reveal widespread and complex coronary disease less suitable for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and age-related comorbidity may preclude surgical intervention. We conducted a retrospective, case-controlled study to examine the outcome, influence on management and complications of DCC in patients aged 80 years and older. The findings were compared with patients aged less than 70 years

Introduction Over the last several years, the UK has witnessed a gradual ageing of its population.1 Moreover, the proportion of the very elderly (≥85 years old) in the general population is expected to rise fastest with a three-fold increase by the year 2035.1 Advancing age is perhaps the strongest predictor of de novo cardiovascular disease (CVD).2 As a consequence, cardiovascular (CV) mortality rates demonstrate a linear association with increasing age beyond the seventh decade. For example, octogenarians have a 10-fold greater risk of developing CVD in comparison with patients <50 years of age.2 Furthermore, mortality rates from CVD a