Gallbladder

Malignant hepato-pancreatico-biliary (HPB) tumors attack more often the sixth to eighth decades of life. The aging of the world population is the reason that the number of elderly patients considered for resection of malignant HPB tumors has highly increased. Since elderly patients are more likely to have more co-morbidities, cognitive impairment, and decreased life expectancy, the benefit and appropriateness of these procedures must be scrutinized for geriatric patients. However, many surgeons have compared the perioperative and long-term outcome of hepatic and pancreatic resections for elderly and younger patients. In most cases the elderly population was above 70 years of age. The results demonstrate that hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal liver metastases can be safely performed in well-selected elderly patients with long-term outcome comparable to younger patients. Similar findings are also reported for pancreatic resection in elderly patients with either ampullary or pancreatic cancer. Even though the survival benefit of pancreatico-duodenectomy is limited in all age groups, the absence of competitive therapy justifies this procedure as the sole curative option in younger as well as older patients. Data on resection of gallbladder cancer and hilar bile duct cancer in the elderly are sparse, but there is proof from large series on resection of these types of tumors that advanced age per se is not a risk factor for reduced outcome. Therefore, surgical options should not be denied to elderly patients with a malignant HPB tumor, and the evaluation should include surgeons expert in HPB surgery. © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All Rights Reserved