Frailty leads to poorer outcomes after complex, emergency surgeries: PLoS ONE

Frail patients have inferior clinical outcomes and greater resource use, after emergency general surgery, with the greatest absolute differences following complex operations, according to recently published study results in PLoS ONE .

In previous studies, frailty has been recognized as an independent risk factor for inferior outcomes, but its effect on emergency general surgery (EGS) is understudied. With this in mind, the purpose of the present study was to define the impact of frailty on risk-adjusted mortality, non-home discharge, and readmission following EGS operations.

The study population consisted of adults undergoing appendectomy, cholecystectomy, small bowel resection, large bowel resection, repair of perforated ulcer, or laparotomy within two days of an urgent admission were identified in the 2016–2017 Nationwide Readmissions Database. Frailty was defined using diagnosis codes corresponding to the Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups frailty indicator.

Multivariable regression was used to study in-hospital mortality and non-home discharge by operation, and Kaplan Meier analysis to study freedom from unplanned readmission at up to 90-days follow-up.

Data analysis revealed some key facts.

Among 655,817 patients, 11.9% were considered frail. Frail patients most commonly underwent large bowel resection (37.3%) and cholecystectomy (29.2%).

After adjustment, frail patients had higher mortality rates for all operations compared to nonfrail, including those most commonly performed (11.9% [95% CI 11.4–12.5%] vs 6.0% [95% CI 5.8–6.3%] for large bowel resection; 2.3% [95% CI 2.0–2.6%] vs 0.2% [95% CI 0.2–0.2%] for cholecystectomy).

Adjusted non-home discharge rates were higher for frail compared to nonfrail patients following all operations, including large bowel resection (68.1% [95% CI 67.1–69.0%] vs 25.9% [95% CI 25.2–26.5%]) and cholecystectomy (33.7% [95% CI 32.7–34.7%] vs 2.9% [95% CI 2.8–3.0%]).

Adjusted hospitalization costs were nearly twice as high for frail patients. On Kaplan-Meier analysis, frail patients had greater unplanned readmissions (log rank P<0.001), with 1 in 4 rehospitalized within 90 days.

"Simple frailty assessments may inform expectations, identify patients at risk of poor outcomes, and guide the need for more intensive postoperative care." the team concluded.

For full article follow the link: Hadaya J, Sanaiha Y, Juillard C, Benharash P (2021) Impact of frailty on clinical outcomes and resource use following emergency general surgery in the United States. PLoS ONE 16(7): e0255122. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0255122

Source:PLoS ONE