Components of Geriatric Assessments Predict Thoracic Surgery Outcomes

BackgroundNo tool currently exists to rapidly allow surgeons to objectively quantify surgical risk in geriatric patients. The goal of our prospective study was to determine if individual questions extracted from validated screens for common geriatric syndromes would have predictive value for surgical risk in geriatric patients with thoracic neoplasms.MethodsPatients ≥ 70 y old were recruited to participate in a prospective, IRB-approved study involving the preoperative administration of validated screening tests. Patients were given the geriatric depression scale (GDS), nutrition screening initiative nutritional health checklist (NSI NHC), mini mental status exam (MMSE), brief fatigue inventory (BFI), and assessed for activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). All patients enrolled in this study were scheduled for thoracic surgery.ResultsPatients who responded to having a dependency in the IADL “shopping” were more likely to have major complications and to be discharged to a non-home location than those without a dependency (P = 0.011, 0.003). Patients who answered “yes” to questions 1, 9, and 10 of the NSI NHC had a longer mean length of stay compared with patients who answered “no” (P = 0.039, 0.010, 0.031). Answering “yes” to GDS question 2 correlated with the incidence of major complications (r = 0.270 P = 0.037). Answering “yes” to GDS question 12 increased the likelihood of being discharged to a non-home location postoperatively (odds ratio = 11.64, 95% CI, 0.68–202.86, P = 0.047).ConclusionsOur data indicate that an abbreviated, rapid presurgical assessment can be developed for estimating operative risk, length of stay, and discharge destination in geriatric patients with thoracic malignancies using individual questions from previously validated screening tools.