Performing heart surgery on elderly patients remains worthwhile, according to a study carried by consultant heart specialist Alex Manché.
Results showed that while patients over 70 experienced more complications and had a higher mortality rate than younger people, they still had a survival rate of more than 97 per cent.
“We have a growing, ageing population that largely enjoys a good quality of life. Cardiovascular disease is the commonest cause of death,” Mr Manché told Times of Malta.
I wanted to dispel this mistaken idea with facts
“There is a perception that operating on the elderly is not worthwhile because of high mortality and complication rates.
“I wanted to dispel this mistaken idea with facts drawn from my own practice over the past 15 years,” he added.
In the research, published in the Malta Medical Journal, Mr Manché carried out an analysis of his coronary patients between April 1995 and January 2012.
The patients were then divided into two groups, one under and the other over 70, and comparisons were then made.
Results showed that the older group experienced more complications and had a mortality rate of 2.7 per cent, compared with 0.8 per cent for those under 70.
This showed the older group had a mortality rate that was more than three times that of the younger group.
However, Mr Manché said, 97.3 per cent of the over-70s who had such surgery survived.
This was significant as it dispelled the perception that many elderly patients did not make it, he stressed.
His research noted that, as life expectancy increased, cardiac surgical interventions on the elderly were likely to increase and the study concluded: “Although mortality and morbidity remain significantly higher, taken within the context of the overall clinical problem, cardiac surgery has much to offer in this select and growing population.”
Mr Manché said the study might be helpful to physicians who were treating elderly patients with cardiovascular disease and who felt they were beyond surgery.
“Something I would like to add is that age, on its own, is not a contraindication for surgery. Some octogenarians are fitter than some people 20 years younger,” he said.