The following is a summary of “Adhesive small bowel obstruction in octogenarians: A 6-year retrospective single-center analysis of clinical management and outcomes” published in the November 2022 issue of Surgery by Quero et al.
There was a paucity of research on the therapy and results of adhesive bowel obstruction (ASBO) in senior individual search.
Retrospective comparisons were made between 138 individuals aged 65 to 79 and 77 patients aged ≥80. For a study, researchers sought to examine how patients between the ages of 65 and 79 and those over 80 were managed for ASBO during their hospital stay.
Octogenarians who underwent upfront surgery had longer hospital stays (8.8 vs. 7.3 days; P = 0.01) and a greater risk of serious complications (23.7% vs. 4.9%; P = 0.009). When non-operative management (NOM) was used, no difference in clinical outcomes according to age was found. When treated conservatively, patients aged ≥80 had shorter hospital stays (7.3 vs. 8.8 days; P = 0.04), lower rates of ICU admission (0 vs. 18.4%; P = 0.005), and fewer cumulative major complications (2.6% vs. 23.7%; P = 0.007) than patients ≥80 years who underwent upfront surgery. NOM failure did not result in poorer results compared to upfront surgery in the same population.
In patients ≥80 years, NOM was linked to a better in-hospital outcome. The satisfactory clinical results in the event of NOM failure further supported the use of NOM as the initial treatment option in the particular patient subgroup.
Reference: americanjournalofsurgery.com/article/S0002-9610(22)00257-4/fulltext
