Association of Memorial Sloan Kettering-Frailty Index with the postoperative intensive and specialized advanced care units admission among older adults with cancer.

Abstract

e18606 Background: Understanding factors associated with poor surgical outcomes of older adults with cancer is necessary in identifying high risk patients and finding ways to mitigate poor outcomes following surgery. In this study, we evaluated whether frailty is associated with intensive postoperative healthcare utilization for this vulnerable population. Methods: This was a single hospital, retrospective cohort study, using the Memorial Sloan Kettering Frailty Index (MSK-FI) to define frailty, with higher MSK-FI corresponding to increased frailty. Multivariable logistic regression with random intercept models were used to assess the association between frailty and 30-day postoperative Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission, and Specialized Advanced Care Unit (SACU) admission, separately. Covariates included surgical department, age, sex, surgical stress score, preoperative albumin level, and whether patients took a Beers criteria medication prior to surgery. Results: We identified 4417 patients over the age of 65 undergoing elective surgery between January 2015 and December 2018 at our institution and had a length of stay of at least one day. A quarter of patients had an MSK-FI score of 3 or greater. Among our patients, 3.8% (95% CI 3.2%, 4.4%), and 5.4% (95% CI 4.8%, 6.1%) were admitted to the ICU, and the SACU, respectively. We found evidence of an association between greater frailty and increased risk of ICU admission (OR per one-point increase in MSK-FI 1.44; 95% CI 1.31, 1.59; p-value < 0.001), and SACU admission (OR per one point increase in MSK-FI 1.46; 95% CI 1.33, 1.60; p-value < 0.001). For example, for a patient with an MSK-FI score of 2, the predicted risk of ICU admission is 2.2% and SACU admission is 1.1%, compared to 4.5% and 2.2%, respectively, for a patient with an MSK-FI score of 4, when all continuous covariates are set to the mean and the categorical covariates are set to the mode. Conclusions: Frailty based on the MSK-FI is associated with intensive postoperative care utilization in this population of older adults with cancer. Future studies should assess the impact of this information on surgery decision making for this vulnerable population.