[Laparocele in the aged].

Especially in the old patients (over 70 years) the incisional hernias represents an invalidating pathology whose treatment, for the high incidence of associated diseases of respiratory and cardiocirculatory apparatus in the aged, offers difficulties connected both to surgical methods and to the perioperative evaluation and preparation of patients. The infections of the surgical incision are very important in the pathogenesis of these diseases. In order to reduce the incidence of incisional hernias the systematic use of perioperative antibiotic therapy is desirable in every operation of abdominal surgery. In order to offer the best guarantees of recovery and to improve the postoperative course of patients, the perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis, together with the use of synthetic prosthesis material, is also essential at the moment of surgical correction of incisional hernia. Although the incisional hernia may sometimes stay silent and asymptomatic for years, it inevitably ends sup by representing a reason for acute and subacute pathologic events; an early surgical treatment is therefore desirable once the incisional hernia has been diagnosed. By this way it is possible to avoid the treatment in the old patients, as the old age is a less favourable period for people who have to be subjected to a surgical operation.