AUTHOR=Vacante Marco , Biondi Antonio , Basile Francesco , Ciuni Roberto , Luca Salvatore , Di Saverio Salomone , Buscemi Carola , Vicari Enzo Saretto Dante , Borzì Antonio Maria TITLE=Hypothyroidism as a Predictor of Surgical Outcomes in the Elderly JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology VOLUME=10 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2019.00258 DOI=10.3389/fendo.2019.00258 ISSN=1664-2392 ABSTRACT=

There is a high prevalence of hypothyroidism in the elderly population, mainly among women. The most important cause is autoimmune thyroiditis, but also iodine deficiency, radioiodine ablation, and surgery may be responsible for hypothyroidism in elderly hospitalized patients. Thyroid-related symptoms are sometimes comparable to physiological manifestations of the aging process, and hypothyroidism may be related with many symptoms which can be present in critical patients, such as cognitive impairment, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and hematological alterations, and eventually myxedema coma which is a severe and life-threatening condition in older adults. Adequate thyroid hormone levels are required to achieve optimal outcomes from any kind of surgical intervention. However, only few randomized clinical trials investigated the association between non-thyroidal illness (or low-T3 syndrome), and adverse surgical outcomes, so far. The goal of this review is to discuss the role of thyroid function as a predictor of surgical outcomes in the elderly.