Association Between Preoperative Frailty Using Frailty Index‐Laboratory Test and Clinical Outcomes in Older Adults Undergoing Brain Tumor Surgery

Abstract

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.