[Adult cardiac surgery: impact on age group differences in preoperative risk factors and early mortality].

Over the past 20 years, there have been marked increased rates in cardiac surgery among the elderly in Portugal. To evaluate the effects of increasing age on outcome after cardiac surgery, 5652 patients who underwent cardiac surgery from 2003 to 2005 in five portuguese hospitals, were entered into a retrospective study. Patients were placed in five groups according to age: (1) 80 and older, (2) 70-79, (3) 60-69, (4) 50-59 or (5) less than 50. Selected variables included risk factors, cardiac status, preoperative hemodynamics and surgical procedures. In-hospital mortality was collected on all patients. The mean age was 64.7+/-11.6 years-old and younger patients were more often male than older patients (74.4% vs 51.9%). Preoperative COPD and peripheral vascular disease rates increased for those older than 60 years and decreased for those aged 30 to 49 years. Octogenarians had more congestive heart failure (62.5% vs 37.7%), urgent operations (39.2% vs 26.4%), aortic valve surgery (44.5% vs 26,8%) and off-pump CABG (77.8% vs 57.3%) than the younger groups. Hospital mortality was less than 2.0% in patients younger than 69 years-old, 3.5% in septuagenarians and 10,0%in octogenarians. While patients age at operation significantly influenced hospital mortality, this appeared to be a consequence of the increased frequency of risk factors and comorbidities together with decreased physiologic reserve in patients over 80 years of age.