[The surgery of intestinal obstruction in the elderly].

Out of 301 intestinal obstructions treated at the 1st Surgical Clinic of Iaşi in the interval 1970-1987, 58 patients aged between 70 and 90 years (mean age 75 years) were recorded. Anatomo-clinically these 58 cases presented: strangulated hernia (19 cases), strangulated eventration (2 cases), strangulations on cords (4 cases), small intestine volvulus (8 cases), sigmoid colon volvulus (6 cases), volvulus of cecum (1 case), intestinal investigation (1 case), colorectal neoplasm (15 cases), peritoneal carcinomatosis (2 cases). The clinical and therapeutical aspects of these particular forms of obstruction in the elderly are discussed and the severity of their prognosis, given the terrain and late admission of such patients which sometimes make impossible a surgical intervention, is underlined. Ten deaths (17.1%) were recorded, representing a lower percentage as compared to other statistics published in the literature.