Mortality and surgical risk assessment among the extreme old undergoing emergency surgery.

Background: Although longevity is becoming frequent, there are no scores to assess nonagenarians undergoing emergency surgery. The aim of this prospective observational study was to determine 30-day mortality and the individual performance of the Physiological and Operative Severity Score for Enumeration of Mortality and Morbidity (POSSUM) and other scores in predicting their risk for death.

Methods: A total of 126 patients were included (2006-2011) and followed for 30 days.