Frailty has a dose-response association with postoperative complications and failure to rescue, following low-and high-risk inpatient surgery, according to a study published in JAMA Surgery.
Researchers examined 984,550 patients who underwent inpatient general, vascular, thoracic, cardiac and orthopedic surgery in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program between Jan. 1, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2012.
They assessed frailty using the Risk Analysis Index and divided patients into five groups.
Here are six study findings.
1. For patients with RAI scores of 10 or less, the major complication rate after low-risk surgery was 3.2 percent.
2. However, patients with RAI scores of 31 to 40 experienced a major complication rate of 36.4 percent.
3. Patients with RAI scores of 10 or less faced a major complication rate of 13.5 percent after high-risk surgery while those with scores higher than 40 experienced a major complication rate of 54.4 percent.
4. Following low-risk surgery, the odds of failure to rescue after one major complication among patients with RAI scores of 11 to 20 increased five-fold as compared to patients with RAI scores of 10 or less.
5. The odds ratio jumped to 43.9 for patients with RAI scores of more than 40.
6. For patients undergoing high-risk surgery, the corresponding odds ratios were also consistently elevated.