Glucose tolerance in elderly patients does not deteriorate during anesthesia and surgical stress.

This study evaluated the glucose tolerance of elderly subjects compared with that of younger subjects under surgical stress. During surgery, glucose 0.1 g·kg-1 was administrated i.v. to the elderly group, aged 66-83 years (n=11, mean 73.5±5.9) and the control group, aged 19-64 years (n=11, mean 50.9±15.1), all of whom were scheduled for lower abdominal surgery and had a normal range of fasting blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C). Between 3 and 90min after glucose loading, the blood glucose levels of the control group increased more than those in the elderly group, and at 10 and 15 min those in the control group showed a significantly greater increase than those in the elderly group (P<0.05). Serum insulin concentrations increased at 3 and 5 min, but no significant difference was observed between the two groups. Cortisol and catecholamines also showed no significant difference between groups. It was concluded that glucose tolerance in elderly subjects does not deteriorate during lower abdominal surgery.