Surgical Principles
Rapid advances in medical sciences have significantly increased life expectancy over the past century, especially in developed nations.[1–3] The trends are catching up in the developing and underdeveloped nations as well in a proportional manner. The average life expectancy in Western Europe alone is 79 years of age for males and 84 for females,[1] while Northern America expects 77 years and 81 years,[3] respectively. All of these are in sharp contrast to Sub-Saharan Africa with an average life expectancy of only 61 years.[4] The global population of individuals >65 years as of 2019 stood at 703 million out of 7.8 billion (9%), with estimated projections of >1.5 billion (15.3%) out of 9.8 billion by 2050.[5,6] In the USA, older adults are about 54 million (16.45%) of the total 328 million people.
