Surgical intensive care in the nonagenarian. No basis for age discrimination
D. R. Margulies, M. E. Lekawa, H. S. Bjerke, J. R. Hiatt and M. M. Shabot
Department of Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of extreme age on outcome from
surgical intensive care. DESIGN: Prospective data collection. SETTING: A
20-bed noncardiac surgical intensive care unit (SICU) that admits 2200
patients per year from a 1201-bed tertiary medical center. PATIENTS:
Nonagenarians were compared with patients under 90 years of age over a
33-month period. Seven patients over age 100 years and 77 nonsurgical
patients were excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mortality and length of stay
were determined for both the SICU and the entire hospitalization. The
nonagenarian and younger groups were stratified by severity of illness
using the first-day Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS). RESULTS: One
hundred forty nonagenarian patients (mean +/- SE age, 92.1 +/- 0.2 years)
were compared with 5652 younger patients (mean age, 60.1 +/- 0.3 years).
The mean SAPS of 11.1 for nonagenarian patients was significantly higher
than the SAPS of 8.6 for younger patients (P < .001). Mortality in the
SICU was 4.3% for nonagenarian patients vs 2.3% for younger patients (P =
.13). SICU mortality rose with increasing SAPS in both groups, but there
was no significant difference between nonagenarian and younger patients for
any SAPS group. Hospital mortality differed significantly, with 17.1% for
nonagenarian patients and 5.3% for younger patients (P < .001). Hospital
and SICU length of stay did not differ significantly between the groups.
CONCLUSIONS: Nonagenarians do not differ from younger SICU patients in
survival from SICU care, although hospital mortality is greater in
nonagenarians. Age alone should not be used to make decisions about the
utility of SICU care for the elderly. Outcome correlates better with
severity of illness, and the measure is valid in young and old alike.
