CLINICAL STUDIES OF GASTRIC AND COLORECTAL CANCER IN PATIENTS OVER 80 YEARS OLD

Abstract

Twenty-nine cases of gastric cancer and thirty-two cases of colorectal cancer in patients over 80 years old were studied with reference to the factors affecting postoperative complications in a recent 11 year period. The rate of the complications was 18.5% in gastric cancer cases and 17.6% in colorectal cancer cases. The hospital mortality rate was 5.9% and 3.7% respectively. There were no statistical significant correlations between postoperative complications and preoperative complications, the number of abnor-mal data in the preoperative examinations, location of the cancer, operation time, intraoperative bleed-ing, R-number (extent of lymph node removal) and pathological stage in both gastric and colorectal cancer cases. Postoperative complications in gastric cancer cases were characterized by that the location included “C” area and a larger number of abnormal data were more than the average. On the other hand colorectal cancer cases were characterized by that rectal cancers under pathological stage II with preoperative complications were operated on curatively. One patient with gastric cancer died postoperatively and one patient with colorectal cancer died, who had both myocardial infarction, hypertension and diabetes. In conclusion, it is necessary to pay careful attention to aged patients over 80 with preoperative complications and to detect the tumor in an early stage. Pre-and postoperative management with great care should be carried out for the prevention of postoperative complications.