Cirugía laparoscópica en el paciente de la tercera edad

a systematic study was performed on patients aged 60 years and older, who were operated on in elective way by minimum access surgery from june 2003 to may, 2004 at the laparoscopic surgery department of “dr luis díaz soto” higher institute of military medicine, with the objective of determining the clinical and surgical characteristics of these patients. one hundred and three patients aged 60-70 years were studied, 71.8 % of which were caucasian women. among the most frequent associated diseases were blood hypertension (56 patients, 53,3 %); asthma and heart diseases (19 patients, 18.4 % respectively). most of patients (75, 72,8 %) had a clinical picture of pain and dyspeptic disorders. development of symptoms took several years in 81 patients (78,6 %). the ultrasound scanning was the most efficient diagnostic means since it showed that gall-bladder lithiasis affected 101 patients (98 %). gallbladder plastron and subacute cholecystitis were found in 6 and 10 patients respectively. surgical length of time was lees than 30 minutes; no post-operative complications occurred, and length of stay at hospital was 24 hours as an average. it was proved that the elderly patients might enjoy the benefits of minimum access surgery.