[The quality of life of the elderly after a surgical intervention. II. Gastric carcinoma].

Having reviewed the literature on this topic, the authors examined the "quality of life" of elderly patients undergoing surgery for gastric carcinoma over the past 5 years. From the results obtained it was seen that the most frequent operation was total gastrectomy (51.1%), followed by gastric resection (48.9%); it was therefore possible to assert that living patients were all well, with a score of 100 on Karnofsky's scale (22.40%), despite the high percentage of deaths during the period examined. The authors therefore concluded that, given that the "quality of life" of those undergoing surgery was satisfactory, it is worthwhile operating whenever possible to give geriatric patients the possibility of leading a normal life.