Surgery for gastric carcinoma is feasible for patients over 80 years of age

We report here the outcome of surgical treatment for gastric cancer in 54 patients over 80 years of age presenting from 1967 to 1989. The mean observation interval of the postoperative period was 24 days. In most cases, preoperative examinations revealed pulmonary, renal or cardiac disturbances. The postoperative morbidity rate was 40.7%, most commonly as a result of pulmonary complications. In the 2 patients with multiple organ disturbances, 1 died 1 day after operation following myocardial infarction and the other died of pneumonia 12 days postoperatively. Intensive care treatments were needed in the early postoperative period. The increased morbidity rate proved to be related to wide resectional procedures such as total gastrectomy, operative time in excess of 3 hours, and intraoperative blood loss >300 ml (p