For the study, researchers examined data compiled during 44 previous studies involving 12,281 surgical patients over the age of 60. The studies included data on several postsurgical complications, including mortality, length of hospitalization and functional decline.
Overall, 25 percent of patients experienced some type of postsurgical complication. Frailty, cognitive impairment, symptoms of depression and smoking were associated with postsurgical complications. Age was not. Additionally, researchers found no association between a patient’s American Society of Anesthesiologists status, which is the result of a physical assessment of the patient’s fitness prior to surgery, and the development of postoperative complications.
“The fact that age and ASA status were not risk factors for postoperative complications is somewhat surprising, because these are the factors a clinician would typically look at when assessing a patient’s risk of developing complications after surgery,” said Jennifer Watt, MD, a geriatric medicine physician with the University of Toronto and lead author of the study. “This study highlights how common postoperative complications are among older adults undergoing elective surgery, and the importance of geriatric syndromes, including frailty, in identifying older adults who may be at risk.”
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