Hot Climate and Perioperative Outcome in Elderly Patients

Global warming is emerging as a threat to the survival of human beings in the coming future. There are a number of epidemiological surveys which have recognized the fact that heat wave is a major cause of weather related mortality in extreme of ages. While auditing our hospital mortality record, we found higher surgical mortality in the months of summer season which inspired us to look into the impact of hot climate in elderly surgical patients.An observational prospective cohort study was undertaken to study the impact of hot climate on elderly (age < 60 yrs) surgical patients over one year. meteorological factors, patient characteristics, surgical risk factors and other related data were analyzed to see the correlation. there were interesting results. although being pioneer work, study had many limitations and caveats, but opens up new insights for research fellows.as hot weather affects farmers and industrial laborers because of prolonged sun exposure in the harvesting season and hot humid polluted environment, the future may be more focused on this vulnerable subgroup to study the impact.