Even more startling than recent overall advances in surgery is the improved outlook for aged patients who need operations. Surgeons used to dread such cases; all too often the patient went into shock on the operating table, or died soon after of pneumonia. How radically things have changed is pointed out by Surgeon Sidney E. Ziffren of the State University of Iowa. "Successful surgery is now constantly performed in the aged," he notes. "Surgery should not be withheld because of a patient's age."
Only in the last eight years has this become possible, says Dr. Ziffren, because of many new insights gained...
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