Particular problems of abdominal surgery in geriatric patients were analyzed in a retrospective study of 1569 surgical procedures of the abdomen carried out in 1420 patients aged 70 years or more. Emergency procedures were necessary in 357 (22.8%) cases with a lethality of 25.5% compared to 8.8% in the elective group. Morbidity was also visibly different in both groups (59.3% vs. 40.2%). While the average time of hospitalisation was 22.4 days, almost 80% of our patients could be released and 12.6% died in hospital.