Accumulated Frailty Characteristics | Geriatric Patients

Patietn selection: geriatric patient >= 65 years undergoing major elective surgery and admitted to the ICU after surgery

The features most predictive of frailty and discharge to an institution:

(1) Charlson comorbidity index >= 3

(2) time up-and-go >= 15 seconds (patient is sitting in the chair, stands up, walks 10 feet, returns, and sits down again)

(3) one or more functional impairment(s) (with Katz activity of daily living score <=3)

(4) anemia with hematocrit <= 35%

Additional features:

(1) low serum albumin (< 3.4 g/dL)

(2) cognitive dysfunction (Mini-Cog score <= 3, with normal = 5)

(3) presence of 1 or more falls in the past 6 months

total number of predictive factors =

= SUM(number of items present)

Interpretation:

• minimum number of items: 0

• maximum number: 7

• The risk of being institutionalized increases with the number of factors present.