Does frailty predict post-operative mortality, complications, and prolonged length of stay in older surgical patients?
Frailty is a strong predictor of adverse post-operative outcomes in older surgical patients, highlighting its potential value in peri-operative risk assessment.
There was strong evidence that frailty in older-old and oldest-old surgical patients predicts post-operative mortality, complications, and prolonged length of stay. Frailty assessment may be a valuable tool in peri-operative assessment. It is possible that different frailty tools are best suited for different acuity and type of surgical patients. The association between frailty and return to pre-morbid function, discharge destination, and quality of life after surgery warrants further research.
Lin et al. (Wed,) studied this question.