Erschienen in:
01.02.2015 | Review Article/Brief Review
Frailty and perioperative outcomes: a narrative review
verfasst von:
Thomas Beggs, Aresh Sepehri, BSc, Andrea Szwajcer, MLIS, Navdeep Tangri, MD, PhD, Rakesh C. Arora, MD, PhD
Erschienen in:
Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie
|
Ausgabe 2/2015
Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten
Abstract
Background
Frailty has no single universally accepted definition or method for assessment. It is commonly defined from a physiological perspective as a disruption of homeostatic mechanisms ultimately leading to a vulnerable state. Numerous scoring indices and assessments exist to assist clinicians in determining the frailty status of a patient. The purpose of this review is to discuss the relationship between frailty and perioperative outcomes in surgical patients.
Principal findings
We performed a review to determine the association of frailty with perioperative outcomes in patients undergoing a wide variety of surgical procedures. A scoping literature search was performed to capture studies from MEDLINE®, EMBASE™, and CENTRAL (Cochrane), which resulted in locating 175 studies across the three electronic databases. After an article screening process, 19 studies were found that examined frailty and perioperative outcomes. The studies used a range of assessments to determine frailty status and included patients in a variety of surgical fields. Regardless of surgical population and method of frailty assessment, a relationship existed between adverse perioperative outcomes and frailty status. Frail patients undergoing surgical procedures had a higher likelihood than non-frail patients of experiencing mortality, morbidity, complications, increased hospital length of stay, and discharge to an institution.
Conclusions
Patients undergoing surgery who are deemed frail, regardless of the scoring assessment used, have a higher likelihood of experiencing adverse perioperative outcomes. With the lack of a unified definition for frailty, further research is needed to address which assessment method is most predictive of adverse postoperative outcomes.