Background: Cardiac surgery is being performed more f requently on the elderly. Wi th an over -stretched budget to
care for an aging population, our objective was to determine i f we are getting better at managing these frai l
patients.
Methods: Insti tutional database was used to identi fy patients aged 80 or above undergoing cardiac surgery in
Blackpool Victoria hospi tal NHS foundation t rust, UK between June1996 and June.2013. Outcomes between group
1(June1996-Dec.2008; n=472) were compared to Gro up 2(Jan.2009-June.2013; n=607) . Long-term survival was
ascertained using NHS t racing -service.
Results: Group 2 patients included more males and had higher mean age and higher addi tive and logistic
EuroSCORE I. Operative mor tal i ty was signi ficantly improve d whi le other compl ication rates were simi lar. Overal l
mean long- term survival was 114.1±4.1 months.
Conclusions: In the past 4 years despi te the tight NHS budgets we have been able to double our workload of
el de rl y pa ti en ts ' p op ul a ti on a n d im pr ov e th ei r h ospi tal mortal i ty wi th expectation of good long -term survival .