With the ageing of the population, surgical wards are caring for an increased proportion of olderpatients. Geriatric syndromes are common in older hospitalised medical and hip fracture patients and areimportant predictors of poor outcomes in these groups, however the extent of presenting and hospital acquiredgeriatric syndromes in other older inpatients is less clear. This systematic literature review aimed to identify theproportion of patients aged 60 or older, cared for in usual-care surgical wards, who presented with and/ordeveloped geriatric syndromes. Observational studies in English were identified through searches in CINAHLand Medline databases from 1985-2012. Studies of hip fracture patients and those requiring surgical intensivecare (eg cardiac surgery) were excluded. The review included 25 studies. The majority of studies reported on theincidence of post-operative delirium, which ranged from 2% to 51% and varied with the type of surgery. Theprevalence of depression at pre-admission screening varied from 9% to 29%. No studies reported on functionaldecline. Estimates of falls, malnutrition, pressure ulcers and urinary incontinence were limited by the smallnumber of studies. These findings indicate the need for further studies to improve the understanding of geriatricsyndromes in older surgical patients in usual-care wards.