How long an elderly person can live with intestinal obstruction needs to be determined according to the cause of the obstruction, the degree of the obstruction, the individual’s physical condition, etc. It mainly depends on whether the primary disease causing the intestinal obstruction can be cured. If it is curable, it basically will not affect their life expectancy.
Specifically, if the symptoms of obstruction are mild in elderly patients, such as incomplete simple intestinal obstruction with a short obstruction time and no blood flow obstruction, the patient can fully recover by removing the cause and with reasonable dietary adjustment and scientific treatment, which will not affect his or her survival. If the intestinal obstruction is caused by malignant tumor, the prognosis is generally poor, especially if the tumor has distant metastasis in advanced stage or the tumor affects the patient’s cardiopulmonary function, the survival period is shorter and some elderly patients can die within a short time.
Once the symptoms of intestinal obstruction appear in elderly patients, they should be promptly admitted to the general surgery department for examination, and the doctor should make a comprehensive judgment in combination with the patient’s physical condition and give the corresponding treatment.