Hepatectomy in Elderly Patients: Does Age Matter?

Background With the increase in average life expectancy in recent decades, the proportion of elderly patients requiring liver surgery is rising. The aim of the meta-analysis reported here was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of hepatectomy in elderly patients. Methods An extensive electronic search was performed for relevant articles that compare the outcomes of hepatectomy in patients ≥70 years of age with those in younger patients prior to October 2012. Analysis of pooled data was performed with RevMan 5.0. Results Twenty-eight observational studies involving 15,480 patients were included in the analysis. Compared with the younger patients, elderly patients experienced more complications (31.8 vs 28.7 %; P = 0.002), mainly as a result of increased cardiac complications (7.5 vs 1.9 %; P