Association of frailty with failure to rescue after inpatient surgery

Editor's Note

Frailty is an important risk factor for postoperative complications and failure to rescue, after both low-risk and high-risk surgical procedures, this study finds.

In this study of 984,550 patients in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, there was a dose-response association between increasing patient frailty, the number of postoperative complications, and failure to rescue after low-risk and high-risk procedures.

The data suggest that the risk-benefit ratio of performing even minor elective procedures needs to be carefully considered in individuals who are considered frail, the authors say.