Association Between Preoperative Frailty Using Frailty Index-Laboratory Test and Clinical Outcomes in Older Adults...

This retrospective cohort study aimed to evaluate preoperative frailty in older adults undergoing brain tumor surgery using the laboratory-based frailty index (FI-LAB) and its association with clinical outcomes. Data were from electronic medical records of individuals aged ≥ 65 years who had brain tumor surgery between 2015 and 2022 at a general hospital in Seoul, South Korea. The FI-LAB included 26 preoperative laboratory tests and five vitality parameters. Of the 111 patients (mean age 75.4 years; 55% women; 63.1% had benign tumors), 35.1% exhibited moderate or high frailty. Moderate frailty was associated with higher hospital readmission rates (OR = 1.5; 95% CI, 1.01-1.82), and high frailty was linked to non-home discharge (OR = 2.1; 95% CI, 1.03-2.99). Assessing preoperative frailty with the FI-LAB may help identify risks of readmission or non-home discharge. Future studies with larger samples are needed to validate these findings. Nurses should integrate frailty assessment into practice to improve postoperative outcomes.