Preoperative Frailty and Postoperative Prognosis in the Elderly After Major Surgeries

With an aging population and the improvement of medical technology, the number of elderly patients who need surgery is gradually increasing. Elderly people often have comorbidities, malnutrition, and other conditions leading to an increased risk of anesthesia. What's more, there could be a big difference in the health status of the elderly with the same age. Frailty is considered to be highly prevalent with increasing age and to confer high risk for adverse outcomes. A complete evaluation of elderly patients before surgery may help improve the prognosis. Some studies have found that preoperative frailty assessment and comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) of the elderly can improve clinical outcomes, but there has been no valid assessment established in China. In this study, we plan to use a comprehensive preoperative frailty assessment and follow up for 30 days after surgery to explore the effect of preoperative frailty on postoperative complications in the elderly after major surgeries. To better evaluate the postoperative complications, we choose comprehensive complication index (CCI), which integrates all complication of the Clavien-Dindo classification and offers a metric approach to measure morbidity.

Inclusion criteria

• Aging at least 65 years old.
• Scheduled for major surgery in Peking Union Medical College Hospital .
• Understand and be willing to participate in this research, and can provide written informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Underwent major surgery within the last month.
• Can't complete the scale evaluation because of lower limb disability or severe knee osteoarthritis and other conditions that affect walking or climbing stairs.
• With mental or neurological disorders and unable to cooperative with investigators.
• Reject to sign the informed consent.