Washington - Heart surgery may be a safe option for patients over 80 with no other risk factors, even though most doctors are reluctant to operate on that age group, according to a study issued yesterday.
Published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the study said heart surgeons should look at a patient's entire risk profile and not rely on age alone when deciding whether to operate.
"If you have a patient who is 82, you should not rule out surgery until everything has been taken into account. Surgery might just help them," said the study's lead author, Dr Karen Alexander, of Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina.