When Surgery is a Bad Idea
A new study suggests that surgery can be very dangerous for the frail elderly, and even more so for nursing home residents, Paula Span reports in
an article on the "New Old Age" section of
The New York Times.
In fact, even "routine" operations, like appendectomies, become high-risk for nursing home residents, according to a study published in The Annals of Surgery.
The study compared mortality risks and subsequent interventions for four types of major abdominal surgery. Researchers found that even compared with adults of similar age who had the same number of chronic illnesses-but who weren't in institutions-nursing home residents fared sharply worse.