Splenectomy for Patients Past Sixty

Among 14 patients past 60 years of age for whom a splenectomy was accomplished, there were 2 hospital deaths, a mortality rate of 14 per cent. Although diseases requiring splenectomy are not peculiar to old age, consideration of splenectomy in older patients will become more frequent because of the increasing number of old people. It was found that splenectomy was worthwhile for those who survived the operation because the patients were improved or recovered from their splenic disease. Their expected length of life suffered little or no interference, no patient in the entire group succumbed to the splenectomy because of senescence.