thoracotomy in the octogenarian octogenarians are rarely referred for thoracic operations presumably owing to the perceived morbidity of thoracotomy and the presumed frailty and limited life span of the 80yearold patient to determine if these concerns are valid we reviewed our operative experience in 50 patients 80 years of age or older mean age 827 years range 80 to 91 years 29 men 21 women undergoing thoracotomy between nov 1 1980 and may 1 1990 for cancer 39 patients and benign disease 11 patients procedures included 25 lobectomies 24 cancer 1 abscess 4 pneumonectomies all cancer 3 esophagectomies 1 perforation 2 cancer 3 explorations for cancer 2 bullectomies 12 wedge or segmental resections 5 open lung biopsies 5 cancer and 1 each for benign nodule and hemoptysis and 1 thymectomy five patients 10 were operated on emergently for massive hemoptysis 1 boerhaaves syndrome 1 or rapidly progressive respiratory insufficiency 3 with an operative mortality of 80 mortality for elective cases was significantly lower 13 p less than 001 major complications occurred in 19 patients 38 univariate analysis performed to identify predictors of operative mortality demonstrated no significant relationship between operative death and patient age sex type of operation diagnosis of malignancy or the presence of either cardiac disease or chronic obstructive lung disease twentythree patients are alive 2 months to 5 years after thoracotomy actuarial survival for the 45 elective patients was 56 and 44 at 1 and 2 years respectivelyabstract truncated at 250 words