Six screening instruments for frailty in older patients qualified for emergency abdominal surgery

The literature on geriatric assessment in emergency admitted patients is scarce, particularly there are no studies regarding the efficacy of frailty screening tests among patients qualified for emergency abdominal surgery. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of six screening instruments in this group of patients.

The diagnostic accuracy of the Vulnerable Elderly Survey (VES-13), Triage Risk Screening Tool (TRST), Geriatric-8 (G8), Groningen Frailty Index (GFI), Rockwood, Balducci score was evaluated in a prospective group of 184 consecutive patients ≥65 years of age. Outcome measure was sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of these tests in prediciting 30-day postoperative outcome.

Patients mean age was 76.9±5.8 (65-100) years. The prevalence of frailty, as diagnosed by screening methods, was: 50-79.9% (Balducci/Rockwood-G8). Multivariate analyses have identified all screening tests apart from Rockwood and TRST as independent factors that predict postoperative outcome. The sensitivity and negative predictive value in case of postoperative mortality were 60-91% (Rockwood-VES-13) and 30-93% (GFI-VES13). In case of postoperative morbidity they were 52-85% (Rockwood-VES-13 and G8) and 44-70% (Rockwood-VES-13), respectively.

Considering these results, it is possible to perform safely and efficiently screening test for frailty in older patients qualified for emergency abdominal surgery. The VES-13 was the best screening instrument; it had the highest sensitivity and negative predictive value both for the postoperative mortality and morbidity. This instrument may offer physicians additional information that can be used in the postoperative optimisation of the treatment of these high-risk group of patients.