Age, time delay to surgery, shock, and acidosis significantly increase the risk of mortality due to AMI, whereas intestinal resection has a protective effect. However, only previous cardiac illness, acute renal failure, and large bowel ischemia have a negative effect as independent risk factors of mortality of AMI.

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Background Frailty has been shown to be a good predictor of post-operative complications and death in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was to analyze the differences between frail and non-frail patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery, as well as the impact of frailty on long-term survival in these patients. Methods A cohort of 149 patients aged 70 years and older who underwent elective surgery for colorectal cancer was followed-up for at least 5 years. The sample was divided into two groups: frail and non-frail patients. The Canadian Study of Health and Aging-Clinical Frailty Scale (CSHA-CFS) was used to detect frailty. The two groups were compared with regard to demographic data, comorbidities, functional and cognitive statuses, surgical risk, surgical variables, tumor extent, and post-operative outcomes, which were mortality at 30 days, 90 days, and 1 year after the procedure. Univariate and multivariate analyses were also performed to determine which of the predictive variables were related to 5-year survival. Results Out of the 149 patients, 96 (64.4%) were men and 53 (35.6%) were women, with a median age of 75 years (IQR 72–80). According to the CSHA-CFS scale, 59 (39.6%) patients were frail, and 90 (60.4%) patients were not frail. Frail patients were significantly older and had more impaired cognitive status, worse functional status, more comorbidities, more operative mortality, and more serious complications than non-frail patients. Comorbidities, as measured by the Charlson Comorbidity Index (p = 0.001); the Lawton-Brody Index (p = 0.011); failure to perform an anastomosis (p = 0.024); nodal involvement (p = 0.005); distant metastases (p < 0.001); high TNM stage (p = 0.004); and anastomosis dehiscence (p = 0.013) were significant univariate predictors of a poor prognosis on univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis of long-term survival, with adjustment for age, frailty, comorbidities and TNM stage, showed that comorbidities (p = 0.002; HR 1.30; 95% CI 1.10–1.54) and TNM stage (p = 0.014; HR 2.06; 95% CI 1.16–3.67) were the only independent risk factors for survival at 5 years. Conclusions Frailty is associated with poor short-term post-operative outcomes, but it does not seem to affect long-term survival in older patients with colorectal cancer. Instead, comorbidities and tumor stage are good predictors of long-term survival.

Background Despite increases in knowledge and advances in the management of acute mesenteric ischemia syndrome (AMI), there have been no significant improvements in mortality in recent years. The objective of this study was to assess the changes in clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes in patients who underwent AMI over time. Methods A total of 323 consecutive patients who underwent acute mesenteric ischemia at our institution between 1990 and 2015 were examined. The occurrence of significant changes over this 25-year period in demographic data, comorbidity, clinical characteristics, laboratory results, operative findings, etiology of the AMI, and operative mortality were evaluated. The evolution mortality rates for the studied period were analyzed using the additive logistic regression, and the significant effect was determined using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). Results A significant increasing linear trend was observed in recent years in Charlson score values (p = 0.008), antiplatelet drug intake (p \ 0.001), use of CT scan (p \ 0.001), arterial thrombosis (p \ 0.001), and intestinal resection (p = 0.047), while a decreasing linear trend was observed in digoxin intake (p \ 0.001), angiography use (p = 0.004), and embolia (p \ 0.001). The rest of the parameters did not present changes over time. Regarding the evolution of the adjusted surgical mortality, a significant decrease according the AIC criterion was observed. Conclusions In recent years, the characteristics of patients with AMI requiring surgery have changed. Changes in operative mortality have also been detected, showing a tendency toward a progressive and significant decrease.

Background More surgical interventions are being performed on octogenarian patients. The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with operative mortality and to determine if perioperative transfusions could affect mortality outcomes in a nonselected series of octogenarian patients undergoing surgery. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on a population of 413 consecutive patients over 80 years old, treated surgically, and divided into two groups: transfused and nontransfused patients. The following variables were recorded: sociodemographic characteristics, main diagnoses, surgical procedure and its characteristics, ASA score, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance (NNIS) index, transfusion requirements, the Clavien-Dindo classification of surgical complications, and operative mortality. ResultsThe mean age of the patients was 84.5 years (SD ? 3.6). Transfused (25.2 %) and nontransfused patients had similar characteristics; except for neoplasia (P\0.001), NNIS (P = 0.008), operative mortality (P = 0.004), and complications according to Clavien-Dindo score (P \0.001). Operative mortality was 20.1 % (83 patients). The predictive variables associated with operative mortality were ASA score (P \0.001), emergency surgery (P \0.001), and blood transfusion (P = 0.004). After adjusting for the variables age, ASA class, NNIS, emergency surgery, and neoplasia, the multivariate analysis showed that the perioperative transfusion in octogenarian patients continued to be significantly associated with operative mortality (P = 0.019; OR 1.97, 95 % CI 1.12-3.47). Conclusion Perioperative transfusion is an independent predictor of postoperative mortality in surgical octogenarian patients.

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Colonization and/or infection by Candida spp. in non-ICU hospitalized surgical patients implies a relative high mortality. Anemia is an independent factor for mortality.

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