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Updated: Sep 27, 2025
A Unified Methodological Framework for Vestibular Schwannoma Research
Published on: June 20, 2017
Association of Patient Frailty With Vestibular Schwannoma Resection Outcomes and Machine Learning Development of a
Oliver Y Tang1, Ankush I Bajaj1, Kevin Zhao2,3,4
1Department of Neurosurgery, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Background:
Patient frailty is predictive of higher neurosurgical morbidity and mortality. However, existing frailty measures are hindered by lack of specificity to neurosurgery.
Objective:
To analyze the association between 3 risk stratification scores and outcomes for nationwide vestibular schwannoma (VS) resection admissions and develop a custom VS risk stratification score.
Methods:
We identified all VS resection admissions in the National Inpatient Sample (2002-2017). Three risk stratification scores were analyzed: modified Frailty Index-5, modified Frailty Index-11(mFI-11), and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Survey-weighted multivariate regression evaluated associations between frailty and inpatient outcomes, adjusting for patient demographics, hospital characteristics, and disease severity. Subsequently, we used k -fold cross validation and Akaike Information Criterion-based model selection to create a custom risk stratification score.
Results:
We analyzed 32 465 VS resection admissions. High frailty, as identified by the mFI-11 (odds ratio [OR] = 1.27, P = .021) and CCI (OR = 1.72, P < .001), predicted higher odds of perioperative complications. All 3 scores were also associated with lower routine discharge rates and elevated length of stay (LOS) and costs (all P < .05). Our custom VS-5 score ( https://skullbaseresearch.shinyapps.io/vs-5_calculator/ ) featured 5 variables (age ≥60 years, hydrocephalus, preoperative cranial nerve palsies, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension) and was predictive of higher mortality (OR = 6.40, P = .001), decreased routine hospital discharge (OR = 0.28, P < .001), and elevated complications (OR = 1.59, P < .001), LOS (+48%, P < .001), and costs (+23%, P = .001). The VS-5 outperformed the modified Frailty Index-5, mFI-11, and CCI in predicting routine discharge (all P < .001), including in a pseudoprospective cohort (2018-2019) of 3885 admissions.
Conclusion:
Patient frailty predicted poorer inpatient outcomes after VS surgery. Our custom VS-5 score outperformed earlier risk stratification scores.
