Main description:

This volume offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the major surgical procedures performed on elderly patients. With advancing age the conditions that require surgery normally increase in incidence, and today all surgeons around the globe can be considered "geriatric surgeons". The latest anesthesiological procedures, the technical improvements and an increased medical knowledge of the comorbities impact have brought extraordinary advances in this field, but this should not allow us to forget that a careful assessment of elderly patients is necessary before undertaking surgery, since also the simplest surgical procedures could alter the delicate psychophysical equilibrium of these "frail" patients.

Introduced by a demographic panorama and analysis, the book describes the anesthesiological management, the preoperative assessment and preparation, the perioperative care, and hemostasis control connected with the main surgical pathologies: gastrointestinal, endocrine, neoplastic, vascular and hepato-biliary, as well with traumatic and non-traumatic emergencies. It will be an invaluable, easy-to-use resource for clinicians, researchers and trainees alike.

Contents:

Section 1: General Principles and Epidemiology: Aging from demography to epidemiology.- Anestesiological management of elderly patients.- Principles of Geriatric surgery.- Perioperative management of elderly patients.- Haemostasis and thrombosis in elderly patients.- Section 2: Endocrine Surgery: Thyroid and parathyroid glands Breast cancer.- Adrenal diseases and endocrine pancreas.- Section 3: Gastrointestinal System: Benign esophageal disease.- Esophageal cancer.- Cancer of the stomach.- Inflammatory bowel disease. Diverticulosis and diverticulitis.- Cancer of the colon and the rectum.- Pelvic pavement disorders.- Section 3: Vascular Disorders: Chronic peripheral arterial and cerebrovascular disease.- Acute peripheral arterial disease. Aortic and peripheral aneurysms.- Venous disorders of the legs.- Section 4: Hepato-Biliary System: Gallbladder and biliary lithiasis.- Cancer of the gallbladder and biliary tree.- Benign and malignant tumors of the liver.- Pancreatitis.- Pancreatic tumors.- Section 5: Abdominal Wall Defect and Soft Tissue Sarcoma: Primitive hernias.- Incisional hernias.- Soft tissue sarcoma.- Section 6: Trauma and Non Traumatic Emergencies: Trauma surgery.- Non traumatic surgery.- Bowel Obstructions.- Acute Peritonitis.- Upper and lower GI bleedings.