Nearly 1 in 7 older adults die within a year of undergoing major surgery, according to an important new study that sheds much-needed light on the risks seniors face when having invasive procedures.
Especially vulnerable are older patients with probable dementia (33 percent die within a year) and frailty (28 percent), as well as those having emergency surgeries (22 percent). Advanced age also amplifies risk: Patients who were 90 or older were six times as likely to die than those ages 65 to 69.
