Background: With the baby boomers getting older, endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is being performed more on elderly people than before. We compared patients undergoing ESS who were >65 years of age with those <65 years.
Materials and methods: We reviewed our database of cases who had ESS between 1992 and 2002. Demographics and patient characteristics and complications encountered intraoperatively and immediately postoperatively were reviewed.
Results: Forty-six (8.1%) patients were older than 65 years of age compared with 522 patients who were 18-64 years old. The older group had a 24% revision rate compared with 34% in the younger group. Complication rates were 21.7% for the elderly compared with 12.8% for the younger group. There was a significantly higher complication rate in the older group of people who were having revision ESS.
Conclusion: The elderly people who were having revision surgery had a higher risk for complications compared with those having primary surgery or those <65 years old.