Effects of Age and Body Composition on the Metabolic Responses to Elective Colon Resection

Abstract

Advancing age tends to be accompanied by predictable changes in organ-system function and body composition, as well as an increased prevalence of various diseases. Our knowledge of the metabolic responses to surgical stress is derived largely from studies of young and middle-aged individuals. Whether these responses are altered in the elderly is not well established; the characteristic changes in metabolic function and body composition that occur in the elderly may limit their ability to respond adequately and to survive severe or complicated surgical procedures. To evaluate the effects of age and differences in body composition on the metabolic responses to surgery, we studied 20 active and otherwise healthy men aged 43 to 77 years, before and after elective colon resection. Age was not related to weight or total body water (TBW) in the patients studied. Resting preoperative energy expenditure was strongly dependent on TBW (reflecting lean body mass) and age (r2 = 0.80, p less than 0.001), and to TBW and creatinine excretion (reflecting muscle mass) (r2 = 0.85, p less than 0.001). Energy expenditure increased 18 +/- 2% (range, 4% to 40%) after operation but this response was unrelated to age. Postoperative urine nitrogen was related to body weight or TBW, but not to age. Serum glucose, cortisol, white blood cell count count, and C-reactive protein responses were also independent of patient age. The metabolic responses of generally healthy men to a moderate surgical stress do not vary with age in the range studied. The metabolic responses to more severe or prolonged stress may be altered with advancing age and changes in body composition, and in patients with concomitant diseases.

Effects of continuous remifentanil administration on intra‐operative subcutaneous tissue oxygen tension

“…Patients were significantly younger and there were significantly more women in our remifentanil group. Regardless of the modest difference in age, which is not clinically relevant, previous studies suggest that age and sex have only negligible effects on neuroendocrine responses to surgery [12, 42, 43]. Thus, at present there is no evidence that these factors per se constitute confounders of tissue oxygenation and perfusion.…”

Rate of perceived exertion and cardiovascular response of community dwelling older adults to six-minute walk test

“…Taux d'effort perçu, vieillissement, réponse cardiovasculaire, test de marche de six minutes increasing age has been established (4), making it imperative to evaluate the change in cardiovascular response of older adults to submaximal exercise (6MWT), necessary to carry out ADL. Hence, this study is aimed at evaluating the cardiovascular responses of community dwelling older adult to a 6MWT.…”

“…Cardiovascular response which is the reaction by the body to a specific influence subject to individual factors such as advancing age, heredity, gender and level of physical fitness (3). Studies have shown that advancing age is potentially the most contributor to the various causes of decline in the metabolic function (4). Ageing results in a decrease of muscle power and exercise capacity (5).…”

A unified modeling framework for metabonomic profile development and covariate selection for acute trauma subjects

“…An interaction variable between group and age is also introduced to capture the differential effect of age between trauma and control group. Notably considerable emphasis was placed in the past [23,24] to find the significance of age on trauma status and its progression. The final data set has nine covariates.…”