R. Shah1, K. Attwood6, S. Arya2, D. E. Hall3, J. M. Johanning5, N. N. Massarweh4 1Henry Ford Health System,General Surgery,Detroid, MI, USA 2Emory University School Of Medicine,Division Of Vascular And Endovascular Therapy/ Department Of Surgery,Atlanta, GA, USA 3University Of Pittsburg,Center For Health Equity Research And Promotion, Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System,Pittsburgh, PA, USA 4Baylor College Of Medicine,VA HSR&D Center For Innovations In Quality, Effectiveness And Safety, Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center,Houston, TX, USA 5University Of Nebraska College Of Medicine,Department Of Surgery,Omaha, NE, USA 6Roswell Park Cancer Institute,Surgical Oncology,Buffalo, NY, USA
Introduction: Failure to rescue (FTR), or death after a potentially preventable complication, is a nationally endorsed, publically reported quality measure. However, little is known about the impact of frailty on FTR—in particular, after lower risk surgical procedures.
Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 984,550 patients from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (2005-2012) who underwent inpatient general, vascular, thoracic, cardiac and orthopedic operations. Frailty was assessed using the clinically applicable Risk Analysis Index (RAI) and patients were stratified into five groups based on RAI score (<=10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 and >40). Procedures were categorized as low (≤1%) or high mortality risk (>1%). The association between RAI, the number of post-operative complications (0, 1, 2, 3+), and FTR was evaluated using hierarchical modeling.
Results: Among the most frail (RAI >30) patients in the cohort, ~20% were aged 55 years or younger. Regardless of procedural risk, increasing RAI score was associated with both an increased occurrence of post-operative complications and the number of complications. For those who underwent low risk surgery, major complication rates were 3.2%, 8.6%, 13.5%, 23.8% and 36.4% for RAI scores of <=10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 and > 40, respectively and for patients undergoing high risk surgery, the corresponding rates of major complications were 13.5%, 23.7%, 31.1%, 42.5% and 54.4%, respectively. Stratifying by the number of complications, significant increases in FTR rates were observed across RAI categories after both low and high risk procedures (Figure 1; trend test, p<0.001 for all). Increasing RAI was associated with an increased risk of FTR that was most pronounced after low risk procedures. For instance, the odds ratios (ORs) for FTR after 1 major complication for patients undergoing a low risk procedure were 4.8 (3.7, 6.2), 8.1 (5.9, 11.2), 19.3(12.6, 29.6) and 48.8 (22.7, 104.9) for RAI scores of 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 and > 40, respectively and for patients undergoing a high risk procedure, the corresponding ORs were 2.6 (2.4, 2.8), 5.2 (4.8, 5.6), 9.3 (8.5, 10.3) and 19.5 (16.8, 22.6) respectively.
Conclusion: Frailty has a dose-response relationship with complications and FTR that is similarly apparent after low and high risk inpatient surgical procedures. Tools facilitating rapid assessment of frailty during preoperative assessment, may help provide patients with more accurate estimates of surgical risk and could improve patient engagement in peri-operative interventions that enhance physiologic reserve and can potentially mitigate aspects of procedural risk.
