Carotid endarterectomy in octogenarians

Aim This study compared the postoperative complication rate between patients age 80 or older to those younger than 80 to determine if older patients were associated with higher risk of complication following carotid endarterectomy. Method Patients who received carotid endarterectomy between January 1997 and December 2005 were identified using the New Zealand Vascular Surgical Audit Registry. Patients were recruited into the two predetermined age groups. Baseline demographics and the complication rates between the two groups were analysed and compared using Chi-squared test. Confounding factors were adjusted using logistic regression. Results 1682 patients were identified, of which 243 patients (14%) were age 80 or older. Younger patients were more likely to be male (P=0.002) and diabetics (P=0.047) and more patients in the older age group were symptomatic from the carotid stenosis (P=0.014). The overall complication rate was 17.2% and there was no significant difference between the two groups (P=0.268). The overall combined postoperative death, TIAs and stroke rate was 3.3%. The cardiac complication rate was low but higher in octogenarians at 4.5% compared to 2.2% (P=0.035). Conclusions Older age does not appear to be associated with higher perioperative complications in carotid endarterectomy.