Multiple Organ Failure in Elderly Patients with Chronic Diseases

Multiple organ failure (MOFE) in elderly patients is a new clinical syndrome different from multiple organ failure (MOF) caused by surgical conditions in the young and middle-aged persons. One thousand and two cases of MOFE were analyzed retrospectively and their clinical features discussed. MOFE has a long insidious course. Its main predisposing factors are pulmonary infection, heart attack, etc. The mortality of MOFE increased with age and the number of organs involved. Nevertheless, those suffering from failure of 4 or more organs can still survive; but is mostly fatal if there is co-existing renal failure. MOFE has 3 different types: type I, II and III, with the last seen only in MOFE but not in MOF. We define MOFE as the sequential failure of 2 or more organs within a short period in elderly patients ( 60 years old) with multiple organ chronic disease on the basis of multiple organ dysfunction.