Major Surgery in the Aged

AN abundance of statistical data testify to the fact that the population of the United States is in a phase of rapid expansion and of simultaneous aging. The application of these two facts to the problem of surgery in the aged is immediately apparent from consideration of the numbers by decades of persons in this country past the age of seventy in the years 1900 and 1950 and projected figures for the year 1960 (Table 1). It is obvious that the problem of surgery in the aged has become one of major importance because of the sheer number of persons . . .