Clinical and Epidemiological characterization of older adults with a diagnosis of acute surgical abdomen

Abstract

Introduction: acute abdomen is a frequent cause of hospitalization in geriatric patients, with some peculiarities in this population group.

Objective: to characterize clinically and epidemiologically older adults diagnosed with acute surgical abdomen.

Method: a longitudinal descriptive observational study was carried out with a univers of 192 older adults patients admitted to the General Surgery Service with impression diagnosis of acute abdomen according to inclusion and exclusión criteria. The data came from medical records and were processed using descriptive statistics. The variables studied were: age groups, sex, etiology, complications, surgical risk, state at discharge, time of evolutión of symptoms.

Results: the age group of 60-69 years predominated in 85 patients (44,3 %) and the male sex in 103 (53,6 %). The main cause of surgical abdomen was intestinal occlusion (28,1 %), infection of the surgical wound as a frequent complication (22,4 %), regular surgical risk (57,3 %) and the state of being alive at the time discharge (77,1 %). 40,6 % of the individuals presented an evolution of symptoms of 48-72 hours.

Conclusions: acute surgical abdomen is a frequent clinical entity in male patients who were in their sixth decade of life. Intestinal obstruction is one of the main causes of acute surgical abdomen in this population group. Good and fair surgical risk is associated with longer survival in older adults with acute surgical abdomen.