Laparoscopic Repair of Perforated Peptic Ulcer in the Elderly: An Interim Analysis of the FRAILESEL Italian Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study.

INTRODUCTION The number of elderly patients requiring emergency surgical intervention has increased dramatically. Perforated peptic ulcer (PPU) complications, such as perforation, have remained relatively stable and associated morbidity remains between 10% and 20%. Advances in perioperative care have greatly improved the outcomes of laparoscopic emergency surgery, allowing increasing numbers of patients, even the elderly, to undergo safe repair. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and outcome of laparoscopic gastric repair in the elderly using the database of the FRAILESEL (Frailty and Emergency Surgery in the Elderly) study. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a retrospective analysis carried out on data of the FRAILESEL study. Data on all the elderly patients who underwent emergency abdominal surgery for PPU from January 2017 to December 2017 at 36 Italian surgical departments were analyzed. Patients who underwent PPU repair were further divided into a laparoscopic gastroduodenal repair (LGR) cohort and an open gastroduodenal repair (OGR) cohort, and the clinicopathologic features of the patients in both the groups were compared. RESULTS Sixty-seven patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Thirty-three patients (47.8%) underwent LGR. The LGR patients had less blood loss and shorter postoperative stay, even if the difference was not statistically significant. The mean operative time was significantively higher in the OGR (OGR 96.5±27.7 vs. LGR 78.6±16.3 P=0.000). The rate of death after laparoscopic surgery was similar to the rate of the open surgery. Multivariate analysis indicated that only age (P=0.018), admission haemoblogbin (Hb) level (P=0.006), platelet count (P=0.16), lactate level (P=0.47), and Mannheim Peritonitis Index (P=0.18) were independent variables associated with the risk of overall mortality. CONCLUSIONS LGR is safe and feasible in elderly patients with PPU and it is associated with better perioperative outcomes. However, patient selection and preoperative frailty evaluation in the elderly population are the key to achieving better outcomes.