The elderly population is subclassified in three categories: young elderly 65-75 years,
older elderly 75-85 years, very elderly &gt;85 years. The percentage of very elderly
patients has been rising in the last years, as well as the number of surgeries performed in this population. Therefore, there’s also been an increase of the mean age of patients admitted in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). The primary goal of the study was to compare surgical outcomes evaluating the impact of age and functional status on SICU admitted patients. After study approval by the institutional ethics committee, an observational retrospective study was conducted. Patients submitted to non-cardiac, non-neurologic elective and emergency surgery admitted at SICU (from Jan 2006 to July 2013) were included. Exclusion criteria: age &lt; 65 years old; length of stay &lt; 12h; patients readmitted in the context of initial admission in the study period. The patients were divided into two groups according to their age:E the very elderly group (VEG), patients aged &gt;85 years, and those between 65 and 85 (OEG). Patient´s demographics, intraoperative and postoperative data were collected. Descriptive analysis was performed and the MannWhitney U test, Fisher´s exact test or Chi-square were used. In our study, the VEG represents 5% of a total of 2205 patients included. The VEG was associated with a higher prevalence of women (p&lt;0.001). This group was more likely admitted in the SICU from non-elective surgery (p&lt;0.001), had a higher prevalence of congestive heart disease (36% vs 21%, p&lt;0.001), organ failure (25% vs 18%, p=0.048) and higher hospital and SICU mortality (9% vs 5%, p=0.006 and 14% vs 5%, p=0.026 respectively). In the VEG, the scores APACHE and SAPS II were higher (both p&lt;0.001). Although there were no differences regarding prevalence of chronic renal failure (p=0.162), acute renal failure (p=0.149) or creatinine levels (p=0.288) there was higher levels of urea (p=0.004) The very elderly population represents an important group of patients admitted in the operating room and consequently in the SICU. It’s important to understand how they may differ from the other patients, to prevent further complications. In our study, it wasidentified a higher mortality rate, and a higher prevalence of organ failure. This increased mortality was confirmed by higher severity of disease scores.

04 / Clinical characteristics and outcomes of the oldest old surgical critical patient