[Primary and re-arthroplasty of the hip or knee joints in patients 80 years of age and older].

Due to the ageing of the population, more and more patients older than 80 years are in need of the hip and knee joints total endoprosthesis. The aim of this retrospective study was to describe perioperative mortality and frequency of complications associated with both primary and re-arthroplasty of hip and knee joints in this age group. For more information about demography, the perioperational period and frequency of complications were investigated 59 patient's card, who have had a 71 endoprosthesis operations, carried out by one surgeon. Information on mortality was obtained by means of telephone interviewing. The average level of mortality within 30 days, 1 year and 5 years amounted to 2.0, 6.1 and 10.2% respectively. Compared with other studies conducted over the past 20 years, these results reflect a significant reduction in the mortality, rate. Average frequency of complications in our study was to 52.2%. which corresponds to the previously published data. All the complications were eliminated and did not cause permanent disability. Thanks to the development of anaesthesia, surgical techniques and technologies, joint endoprosthetics can be considered safe in patients older than 80 years.