Postoperative complications after cranial or spine surgery are prevalent, and frailty can be a key contributing patient factor. Therefore, we evaluated frailty’s impact on 30-day mortality. We compared the discrimination for risk analysis index (RAI), modified frailty index-5 (mFI-5) and increasing patient age for predicting 30-day mortality. Patients with major complications following neurosurgery procedures between 2012- 2020 in the ACS-NSQIP database were included. We employed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and examined discrimination thresholds for RAI, mFI-5, and increasing patient age for 30-day mortality. Independent relationships were examined using multivariable analysis. There were 19,096 patients included in the study and in the ROC analysis for 30-day mortality, RAI showed superior discriminant validity threshold C-statistic 0.655 (95% CI: 0.644-0.666), compared to mFI-5 C-statistic 0.570 (95% CI 0.559-0.581), and increasing patient age C-statistic 0.607 (95% CI 0.595-0.619). When the patient population was divided into subsets based on the procedures type (spinal, cranial or other), spine procedures had the highest discriminant validity threshold for RAI (Cstatistic 0.717). Furthermore, there was a frailty risk tier dose response relationship with 30-day mortalityy (p<0.001). When a major complication arises after neurosurgical procedures, frail patients have a higher likelihood of dying within 30 days than their non-frail counterparts. The RAI demonstrated a higher discriminant validity threshold than mFI-5 and increasing patient age, making it a more clinically relevant tool for identifying and stratifying patients by frailty risk tiers. These findings highlight the importance of initiatives geared toward optimizing frail patients, to mitigate long-term disability.

Racial disparities are common in healthcare. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a leading cause of preventable harm, and disparities observed in prevention practices. We examined the impact of a patient-centered VTE education bundle on the non-administration of preventive prophylaxis by race. A post-hoc, subset analysis (stratified by race) of a larger nonrandomized trial. Pre-post comparisons analysis were conducted on 16 inpatient units; study periods were October 2014 through March 2015 (baseline) and April through December 2015 (post-intervention). Patients on 4 intervention units received the patient-centered, nurse educator-led intervention if the electronic health record alerted a non-administered dose of VTE prophylaxis. Patients on 12 control units received no intervention. We compared the conditional odds of non-administered doses of VTE prophylaxis when patient refusal was a reason for non-administration, stratified by race. Of 272 patient interventions, 123 (45.2%) were white, 126 (46.3%) were black, and 23 (8.5%) were other races. A significant reduction was observed in the odds of non-administration of prophylaxis on intervention units compared to control units among patients who were black (OR 0.61; 95% CI, 0.46–0.81, p<0.001), white (OR 0.57; 95% CI, 0.44–0.75, p<0.001), and other races (OR 0.50; 95% CI, 0.29–0.88, p = 0.015). Our finding suggests that the patient education materials, developed collaboratively with a diverse group of patients, improved patient’s understanding and the importance of VTE prevention through prophylaxis. Quality improvement interventions should examine any differential effects by patient characteristics to ensure disparities are addressed and all patients experience the same benefits.

Importance: Preoperative frailty has been consistently associated with death, severe complications, and loss of independence (LOI) after surgery. LOI is an important patient-centered outcome, but it is unclear which domains of frailty are most strongly associated with LOI. Such information would be important to target individual geriatric domains for optimization. Objective: To assess whether impairment in individual domains of the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS) can predict LOI in older adults after noncardiac surgery. Design: Retrospective Cohort Study. Setting: One Academic Hospital. Participants: Patients aged 65 or older who were living independently and evaluated with the EFS during a preoperative visit to the Center for Preoperative Optimization at the Johns Hopkins Hospital between June 2018 and January 2020. Main Outcome: LOI defined as discharge to increased level of care outside of the home with new mobility deficit or functional dependence. New mobility deficit and functional dependence were extracted from chart review of the standardized occupational therapy and physical therapy assessment performed before discharge. Results: A total of 3497 patients were analyzed. Age (mean±SD) was 73.4±6.2 years, and 1579 (45.2%) were female. The median total EFS score was 3 (range 0–16), and 725/3497 (27%) were considered frail (EFS≥6). The frequencies of impairment in each EFS domain were functional performance (33.5% moderately impaired, 11% severely impaired), history of hospital readmission (42%), poor self-described health status (37%), and abnormal cognition (17.1% moderately impaired, 13.8% severely impaired). Overall, 235/3497 (6.7%) patients experienced LOI. Total EFS score was associated with LOI (odds ratio: 1.37, 95% CI, 1.30–1.45, P<0.001) in a model adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists rating, congestive heart failure, valvular heart disease, hypertension diagnosis, chronic lung disease, diabetes, renal failure, liver disease, weight loss, anemia, and depression. Using a nested log likelihood approach, the domains of functional performance, functional dependence, social support, health status, and urinary incontinence improved the base multivariable model. In cross-validation, total EFS improved the prediction of LOI with the final model achieving an area under the curve of 0.840. Functional performance was the single domain that most improved outcome prediction, but together with functional dependence, social support, and urinary incontinence, the model resulted in an area under the curve of 0.838. Conclusion and Relevance: Among domains measured by the EFS before a wide range of noncardiac surgeries in older adults, functional performance, functional dependence, social support, and urinary incontinence were independently associated with and improved the prediction of LOI. Clinical initiatives to mitigate LOI may consider screening with the EFS and targeting abnormalities within these domains.

BACKGROUND AND IMPORTANCE: Healthcare systems continuously strive to improve quality and value of care. Advances in surgical technologies, enhanced perioperative surgical planning, and multidisciplinary care strategies are increasing the number of elective procedures in the geriatric population. However, frail older adults are still more likely to have poor postoperative outcomes. We examined the impact of frailty on postoperative outcomes, we compared the discriminative thresholds for the Risk Analysis Index (RAI), modified Frailty Index-5 (mFI-5), and increasing patient age. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: Octogenarian patients undergoing spine, cranial, and other procedures captured in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program between 2012 and 2020 were included. We used receiver operating characteristic curve to examine discriminative thresholds of RAI, mFI-5, and increasing patient age. Multivariable analyses were performed. Our primary outcomes were 30-day mortality, extended length of stay (eLOS [≥75th percentile]), and continued inpatient care >30 days (pLOS). Secondary outcomes were skilled care facility (skilled nursing facility [SNF]) discharges and readmissions. DISCUSSION: In total, 20 710 octogenarians were included, with a mean age of 83 years (SD, 2.5) and a men (52.7%) and White (79.8%) majority. The RAI had higher predictive discriminative thresholds for 30-day mortality (C-statistic of 0.743), eLOS (C-statistic: 0.692), and pLOS (C-statistic: 0.697) compared with the mFI-5 (C-statistic: 0.574, 0.556, and 0.550, respectively), and increasing patient age (C-statistic: 0.577, 0.546, and 0.504, respectively), P < .001. On multivariable analyses, RAI showed a larger effect size with adverse postoperative outcomes by increasing frailty strata than mFI-5 and increasing patient age. Nonetheless RAI showed decreased risk for SNF discharges. CONCLUSION: We found that RAI was a more accurate predictor than mFI-5 and increasing patient age for 30-day mortality, eLOS, and pLOS in octogenarian neurosurgery patients. More research is needed on RAI's performance in different specialized neurosurgical populations. Moreover, it is increasingly clear that comprehensive risk assessment strategies tailored to optimize perioperative care should be prioritized to potentially improve outcomes for this at-risk population.