Back to Annual Meeting Posters

Background:
Increasing longevity of population has led to substantial increase in elderly patients who undergo emergent surgical procedures. Surgical intervention was thought to have less favorable outcome in elderly patients with acute limb ischemia due to unsuitable pre-operative risk. This study examines the mortality and morbidity outcome of embolectomy in octogenarian versus non-octogenarian who present with acute limb ischemia.
Methods:
This is a retrospective study of 39 patients who underwent embolectomy of upper and lower extremities for acute limb ischemia in between January 2001 to October 2011 at Abington Memorial Hospital. Morbidity and mortality of octogenarian (>80 years old) or greater were compared to non-octogenarian (< 80 years old).
Results:
The patients age ranged from 59-105 years old. There were 15 patients in age group A (range 52 - 79 years old) with average age of 68.1±9.4 years old. There were 24 patients in age group B (range 81-105 years old) with average age of 86.6±5.3 years old. Overall 30 day complication rate were similar in two groups, 33.3% vs 29.2% ( p =0.26) respectively. Complications included bypass, amputation, infection and wound issues. Thirty day mortality rate was similar in group A and group B, 6.7% vs 4.2% (p = 0.48), respectively.
Conclusions:
In a acute limb ischemia setting, octogenarian or older patients have similar outcome profile as younger counterpart when embolectomy was performed. Although, complication rate still remain high, surgical intervention has been shown to be superior in reperfusion of ALI. Therefore, surgical intervention such as embolectomy should not be excluded in older patient population.