Background: With the increase in average life expectancy in recent decades, the proportion of elderly patients requiring liver surgery is rising. The aim of the meta-analysis reported here was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of hepatectomy in elderly patients.
Methods: An extensive electronic search was performed for relevant articles that compare the outcomes of hepatectomy in patients ≥70 years of age with those in younger patients prior to October 2012. Analysis of pooled data was performed with RevMan 5.0.
Results: Twenty-eight observational studies involving 15,480 patients were included in the analysis. Compared with the younger patients, elderly patients experienced more complications (31.8 vs 28.7 %; P = 0.002), mainly as a result of increased cardiac complications (7.5 vs 1.9 %; P < 0.001) and delirium (11.7 vs 4.5 %; P < 0.001). Postoperative major surgical complications (12.6 vs 11.3 %; P = 0.55) and mortality (3.6 vs 3.3 %; P = 0.68) were comparable between elderly and younger patients. For patients with malignancies, both the 5-year disease-free survival (26.5 vs 26.3 %; P = 0.60) and overall survival (39.5 vs 40.7 %; P = 0.29) did not differ significantly between the two groups.
Conclusions: Postoperative major surgical complications, mortality, and long-term results in elderly patients seem to be comparable with those in younger patients, suggesting that age alone should not be considered a contraindication for hepatectomy.