RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: The aging of the population is one of the most widely studied and impactful social phenomena of this century. Up to 25% of all emergency hospital admissions can be due to diseases that require general surgery. AIMS: To describe the experience at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of the Hospital Español, Mexico, in patients above 65 years of age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective, observational, analytic, and cross-sectional study was conducted that included 595 medical records of geriatric patients that underwent surgical procedures, within the time frame of November 2013 and February 2019. RESULTS: A total of 52% (309) of the patients were men and 48% (286) were women. Mean patient age was 75.38 years, with a mode of 73 years, and a maximum age of 100 years. Mean hospital stay was 4.5 days. Postoperative complications presented in 12.77% of the patients, 3.02% of which were severe. Reoperation was required in 13 patients (0.02%). The perioperative mortality rate was 2.02%. CONCLUSIONS: The morbidity and mortality rates of the procedures that corresponded to general surgery in our case series were similar to those reported in the literature. A statistically significant number of patients underwent laparoscopic surgery, within the study period.
