A new study from the University of Chicago Medicine contradicts the assumption that rates of abdominal surgeries in older adults are rising as the U.S. population ages and as surgical advancements continue.
The study, published May 10 in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, found the frequency of such surgeries in older adults decreased between 2002 and 2014, especially among those over age 85.
The finding is based on an analysis of 3.9 million discharges involving U.S. adults age 50 or older who underwent elective abdominal surgery during this time period.
"There was a really stark decrease in the number of surgeries among older adults over the age of 65 throughout the study period," first author Daniel Rubin, MD, associate professor of anesthesia and critical care at UChicago Medicine, said in a news release. "This suggests we're getting better at determining who would benefit most from a surgery, and also possibly that we've developed better and less invasive alternative treatments."
While the overall frequency of abdominal surgeries decreased, there were some exceptions to this trend. For example, researchers found a large shift in surgical procedures away from rural and nonteaching urban hospitals to major academic medical centers, which were the only hospitals that saw an increase in such surgeries. Researchers also saw an increase in Whipple procedures, which are often the most effective option for patients with pancreatic cancer, even if they are older, according to Dr. Rubin.
He said understanding how surgery trends change can highlight which treatment options are most likely to lead to the best outcomes.
"We're very good at understanding overall mortality for certain procedures, but not as good at identifying which individual patients will have poor outcomes," Dr. Rubin said. "My hope is that this research, and other studies like it, will help us better understand how to help older adults prepare for major surgeries and help us identify which individual patients will benefit the most from surgical intervention."
To view the full study, click here.