Surgical Risk and Comorbidity in Older Urologic Patients

Almost two-thirds of urology operations are performed in patients 65 years and older. Older adults are at higher risk for complications and mortality compared with their younger counterparts. There are 2 primary methods to quantify surgical risk in these patients, frailty measurement and organ/comorbidity-based surgical risk calculators. A frailty assessment can be used to independently forecast the risk of postoperative complications. A paradigm shift in the preoperative assessment of the geriatric patient has occurred, which emphasizes the evaluation of frailty over more traditional surgical risk assessment, which uses comorbidities and single end-organ dysfunction to define risk.