[The surgical treatment of perforated gastric and duodenal ulcers in middle-aged and elderly patients--an analysis of the 1985-1996 period].

The problem relating to perforated gastric and duodenal ulcers (PGDU) treatment is still pressing nowadays not only on account of the constant mortality rate (6.7-14.55 per cent according to personal data), but also on account of the lack of universally accepted tenets for their management, irrespective of the fact that the first operative interventions were done more than 100 years earlier, and so far, more than 50 palliative and radical procedures have been suggested. Between 20 and 40 per cent of all ulcer patients are individuals in advanced and senile age. In this contingent a characteristic feature is the elevated incidence of complications, one of them being perforation, necessitating operative treatment and exposing elderly patients to serious surgical and anesthesiological hazards.