Premium
Surgical Stress in the Healthy Elderly
Author(s) -
LINN BERNARD S.,
LINN MARGARET W.,
JENSEN JOERG
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1983.tb02199.x
Subject(s) - medicine , anxiety , young adult , modalities , elective surgery , physical therapy , surgery , psychiatry , gerontology , social science , sociology
Surgery has sometimes been studied as a stressful event. The aim here was to determine the relationship between degrees of anxiety before surgery and postoperative outcomes in healthy old and young men. 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. Furthermore, 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 in order to improve their overall health outcomes.