Surgical Stress in the Healthy Elderly

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Abstract
Surgery has sometimes been studied as a stressful event. To determine the relationship between degrees of anxiety before surgery and postoperative outcomes, old and young men were selected if they had no illnesses or prior surgery and were scheduled for elective hernia repair. Levels of anxiety were measured preoperatively along with other physiologic, psychologic and immunologic modalities. Operative data and follow-up data for 30 days were obtained. Old and young men did not differ significantly before surgery. When age groups were divided by preoperative anxiety and their postoperative outcomes compared, more anxiety was associated with more pain-relieving medications and more disability days in each age group. The old anxious had even more disability days and complications than did other groups. The study points to the need to prepare the old, even those essentially in very good health, for even a minor surgical stress to improve their overall health outcomes.

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