ABSTRACT
To reduce postoperative mortality in elderly patient, between January 1988 and March 1993, in a retrospective study we compared 388 patients with general anesthesia (GA) and regional anesthesia (RA) over 70 years of age. The patients whose anesthetic methods could be decided by anesthesiologists arbitrarily were selected undergoing orthopedic surgery, gynecologic surgery and urosurgery. The groups were compared for postoperative hospital death within one month. The overall postoprative mortality was 3.9% and 6.6% in GA group, 2.6% in RA group respectively. There was no significance between GA group and RA group. We conclude that there are no signifcant differences postoperative survival or mortality attributable specifically to anesthetic methods selected, either GA or RA.