The Impact of Frailty on Outcomes of Elderly Patients After Major Vascular Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the quality of published evidence of all frailty tools in major vascular surgery and to determine the effect of frailty on short and long-term outcomes after vascular procedures.

Methods: MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Database and Scopus (updated on May 12, 2018) were searched for studies evaluating the effect of frailty in vascular surgery and data were extracted from the included studies. A modified Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess the quality of the included studies. The impact of frailty on outcomes was expressed as odds ratios (OR) or hazard ratios (HR) using a random effects model.

Results: A total of 22 cohort studies and one RCT were included. Overall frailty was found to be associated with a significantly increased risk of 30 day mortality in patients who underwent vascular surgery (OR 3.83, 95% CI 3.08-4.76), with similar effects in both patients who underwent abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair (OR 5.15, 95% CI 3.91-6.77) and lower extremity revascularisation (OR 3.29, 95% CI 2.53-4.28). Functional status remained the only tool with high quality of evidence predicting 30 day mortality after vascular surgery (OR 4.49, 95% CI 3.81-5.30). As for long-term outcomes, frailty was associated with a significantly increased risk of long-term all cause mortality in the overall studied population (HR 2.22, 95% CI 1.81-2.73), as well as in patients with AAA repair (HR 2.10, 95% CI 1.59-2.79) and lower extremity revascularisation (HR 2.46, 95% CI 1.73-3.49). Central muscle mass was found to be the only tool with moderate quality of evidence predicting long-term survival after major vascular surgery (HR 2.48, 95% CI 1.76-3.49). Other single domain tools were generally scored as low quality, and the modified Frailty Index was the only multi-domain tool with moderate quality while others were scored as low or very low.

Conclusion: Frailty, assessed by functional status, can predict short-term mortality in elderly patients after vascular surgery; while central muscle mass may help determine long-term survival in abdominal aortic repair. As frailty is associated with both worse short and long-term outcomes, frailty assessment may be considered in patients scheduled for vascular surgery.

Keywords: Elderly; Frailty; Outcomes; Vascular surgery.