Frailty is an independent risk factor for postoperative pulmonary complications in elderly patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic pulmonary resections

Although frailty as a common geriatric syndrome is associated with postoperative complications, its relationship with postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) following pulmonary resections in elderly patients is unclear. To investigate the relationship between frailty and PPCs in elderly patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic pulmonary resections and explore the effect of the addition of frailty assessment to PPC risk index and ASA on their predictive ability. In a prospective cohort study, we measured frailty status using the FRAIL scale in elderly patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic pulmonary resections. Multivariate analysis was used to identify the relationship between frailty and PPCs. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to examine the predictive power of frailty and other assessment tools. 227 patients were analyzed in the study. The prevalence of PPCs was 24.7%. Significant differences between patients with and without PPCs were observed in the following aspects: BMI, smoking, COPD, respiratory infection within the last month, FEV1/FVC ratio, creatinine, ASA, frailty and PPC risk index (p < 0.05, respectively). After adjusting for all covariates, frailty was significantly related to PPCs in elderly patients (odds ratio: 6.33, 95% confidence interval: 2.45–16.37). Combined with frailty assessment, the area under the curve for ASA class and PPC risk index was increased to 0.759 (95% CI 0.687–0.831) and 0.821 (95% CI 0.758–0.883). Frailty was associated with PPCs in elderly patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic pulmonary resections. Combined with the frailty assessment, the predictive power of the PPC risk index and ASA class was improved.