Laparoscopic surgery for extremely elderly patients (≥85)-experience from a single center

Background: More and more extremely elderly patients (≥85) with colorectal cancer are being encountered in routine clinical practice. For these patients, the laparoscopic approach has been considered as a less invasive alternative. Whereas, it is not so easy for us to accomplish controlled clinical trials among extremely elderly patients. The present study was performed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of laparoscopic surgery for extremely elderly patients. Materials: and Methods: Medical records of extremely elderly patients with colorectal cancer who had underwent curative laparoscopic or open surgery were retrospectively reviewed. The clinicopathological characteristics and surgery-related outcomes of these patients were recorded and analyzed. Results: : A total of 110 extremely elderly patients had undergone curative surgery at our center, including 47 open surgeries and 63 laparoscopic surgeries. The mean operation times for open surgery and laparoscopic surgery were 199.94 (±64.17) and 195.71 (±77.85) minutes, respectively. Intraoperative blood transfusion during laparoscopic surgery (258.73±549.38 ml) was not significantly different from that for open surgery (160.64±273.05 ml) (P=0.264). In the open group, 2 patients experienced major complications. In the laparoscopic group, 4 patients experienced major complications. The laparoscopic group was not significantly different from the open group in terms of overall survival (P=0.763) and recurrence-free survival (P=0.323). Of these 110 patients, the oldest was a woman aged 100 years and 10 months who had undergone curative laparoscopic sigmoidectomy. Conclusion: For extremely elderly patients with colorectal cancer, laparoscopic surgery is feasible and safe. We report the success of laparoscopic surgery for a patient aged 100 years with sigmoid colon cancer.