|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
| SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
|
20% of Elderly Die Month after Surgery By The Herald and Weekly Times November 12, 2010 Australia A
major review of operations performed in Australian and Those
who experienced serious or life-threatening complications after their
surgery was 20 per cent. Associate
Professor David Story, who led the research, said that while the figures
appeared to be high, it was the result of surgery becoming "a lot
safer" for older Australians. Advances
in technology and technique handed the option of surgery to increasingly
"older and sicker patients", he said, and this presented an
array of new and sometimes deadly risks. "The
major point is, surgery has become a lot safer, we're saying surgeons have
made surgery a lot safer and we're now operating on older and sicker
patients," Dr Story, from Melbourne's Austin Hospital, said
yesterday. "That
has tipped the balance, and the big risk now for a lot of patients is
themselves." The
study took in more than 4100 operations performed across 23 metropolitan
and regional hospitals. Joint
replacements, hernia and gall bladder removal, cancer-related bowel
surgery, and ear nose and throat surgeries were common operations included
in the REASON study. It
deliberately excluded cardiac surgeries, whose patients all recover in
intensive care. The
research showed at least half of the elderly surgical patients also had
complex health problems in need of close management. These
health problems were "often far more important than the operation
itself", Dr Story said, and this scenario required a "very
different way of thinking" about surgery. More
of a focus was needed on managing an aged patient's individual health
problems before, during and after their operation, he said. Surgical
techniques, and post-operative care plans, that were best practice in
healthy patients could not simply be applied "cookie-cutter
style" to aged patients. "The
cookie-cutter style has some advantages in getting people to focus on the
issues, but we need to individualise the care," Dr Story said. "We
now know that with patients with complex medical problems ... it's very
important to individualise treatment under a highly specialised care
regime before, during and after surgery." Dr
Story said the nation's population was ageing, meaning more older people
would turn up in hospitals, and they needed a "systematic approach to
deal with it". The
study findings were published in the journal Anaesthesia, and Dr
Story will present the data at an Australian and New Zealand College of
Anaesthetists (ANZCA) meeting in
More Information on US Health Issues
|
