Risk Analysis Index measures frailty in surgical patients

Editor's Note

In this study, a Risk Analysis Index was found to measure frailty in surgical patients with predictive ability equal to other frailty tools, with an additional advantage of rapid, real-time, preoperative assessment feasible for guiding surgical decision making.

The Index measures frailty prospectively using a questionnaire or retrospectively using variables from Veterans Affairs or American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Projects.

This is the first frailty index used explicitly for system-wide screening of surgical patients, taking only 1 to 2 minutes to complete as part of a standard interview, the authors say.

Question Can frailty be measured rapidly, accurately, and reliably enough to inform surgical decision making? Findings In this cohort study, the novel Risk Analysis Index (RAI) measures frailty prospectively (RAI-C) using a questionnaire or retrospectively (RAI-A) using variables from Veterans Affairs or American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Projects.