THE VERITABLE plethora of recent literature on the subject of geriatric surgery is ample evidence that increasing attention is being focused upon the aged of our population. This clear-cut trend has its origin in the fact that the number of persons in the upper age brackets has been increasing since the turn of the century. Groom1 has pointed out several interesting facets of population changes in the United States. Between 1930 and 1940 the entire population increased by only 7%, whereas there was an increase of 35% in the number of persons 65 to 74 years of age and an increase of 38% in those more than 75 years of age. It is estimated that 40% of the population will be more than 45 years of age by 1980, while the group over 65 years of age will represent 14% of the total population, or 22,000,000 persons. Inasmuch as