Cardiac surgery in octogenarians: long-term survival, functional status, living arrangements, and leisure activities.

Background: A prospective study of survival, functional outcome, living arrangements, daily activities and leisure engagements among octogenarians up to 5 years after cardiac surgery was performed.

Methods: The study consisted of a cohort of 300 consecutive octogenarians with three interviews made at 6-month intervals for a total of 593 postoperative interviews. Functional outcomes were measured using the Barthel index and Karnofsky performance scores and divided into autonomous, semiautonomous, or dependent.