The aged patient who has undergone an operation in the intensive care unit.

The reaching of 13% within the Italian population of those who are older than 70 has caused a significant rise in the number of the elder people who undergo major surgery operations; this is due also to the availability of mini-invasive endo-laparoscopic techniques, to the availability of new very manageable anaesthetics and new anaesthesia plans, suitable for the elder, to a more effective control of post-operative pain, and mostly to a comfortable access to I.C.U. in the post-operative phase.