Surgery for Elder Patients with Colorectal Cancer and Risk Factors for Postoperative Complication

With the increase in life expectancy and medical advance, surgical intervention for elderly patients with colorectal cancer is more and more frequent. In this retrospective study, this study mainly focused on surgery for elderly patients with colorectal cancer. In this study, the characteristics of preoperative, surgical and postoperative variables were described and risk factors for postoperative complication were analyzed. Totally, 221 patients were included in this study. The average age of patients was 78.84 years old and the preoperative nutritional status was roughly normal. 125 (56.56%) patients had comorbid diseases and 146 (67.59%) patients had an ASA score of 3 or 4. Emergency surgery was performed in 12 (5.43%) patients. 125 patients received open surgery while 96 received laparoscopic surgery among which 7 (7.29%) converted to open surgery. 36 (16.29%) patients had to get enterostomy. The average operative time was 220.00 min and the median blood loss was 100 ml with 55 (24.89%) patients needing intraoperative transfusion. As for risk factors for postoperative complication, patients with preoperative comorbid disease, longer operative time, more blood loss and intraoperative transfusion seemed more likely to have complication, although without significant difference. Preoperative low level of album (< 30 g/L) and emergency surgery were independent risk factors for postoperative complication (p = 0.037 and 0.021, respectively). In conclusion, surgery for elder patients with colorectal cancer had its own characteristics, and was controllable in general. Preoperative low level of album (< 30 g/L) and emergency surgery were independent risk factors for postoperative complication