[Aneurysms surgery in the patients aged seventy to eighty years].

Elderly patients are a growing population group in developing countries because of optimal health care. 13% of Cuba population is older than sixty years and it is expected to grow to 20% in 2005. Subarachnoid hemorrhage secondary to ruptured aneurysms in geriatric patients carries a high mortality but a few patients are selected for surgical treatment. Manuel Ascunce Domenech Hospital attended 1112 patients older than 60 years between January 1994 and December 2001. Of these there were 96 patients with symptomatic intracranial aneurysms and we selected 30 for surgical treatment. They were all in clinical grades I and II of the WFNS scale. They had good health to face surgery and familiar consent. The size and location of the aneurysms were not considered among the exclusion criteria. Aneurysms were mainly localized at posterior communicating and middle cerebral arteries. There were two deaths, one due to a medical cause an the other to the surgical procedure. 74% of the patients obtained satisfactory outcome six month after the operation. The clue is to not consider age as a negative point for surgery. Surgical procedures can be performed in patients with good clinical grade (WFNS). New technical advances, stroke units, accurately selected patients and minimal invasive surgical methods will help to obtain good results.