Risk Assessment in Cardiac and Noncardiac Surgery in Older Patients

Over the past 20 years, the number of older people undergoing surgery has increased exponentially, with projections suggesting that close to 50 % of the surgical activity in the USA will focus on the elderly population within the next few years. This will unavoidably result in an increase prevalence of elderly patients evaluated preoperatively for different surgical indications, due to the increase in average length of life, improvement in surgical and anesthetic techniques, and significant reduction in intra- and perioperative mortality and morbidity. Despite these remarkable significant improvements, surgical risk, perioperative complications, mortality, and severe disability remain significantly higher in the elderly as compared to younger surgical candidates.