Regional anaesthesia for the elderly patients

Elderly people require surgery four times more often than the rest of population. Anaesthesia related morbidity and mortality are higher in the elderly patients. Aging is a universal and progressive physiologic phenomenon characterized by degenerative changes. In geriatric patients there is reduction in the structure and the functional reserve of organs and tissues. To keep adequate organ persufion during anaesthesia is of the paramount importance. Regional anaesthesia appears to be safe in the elderly patients because it reduces stress response, the incidence of thromboembolic complications and provides good postoperative analgesia.