NELA 1 Sarcopenia versus clinical frailty scale in predicting the risk of postoperative mortality after emergency laparotomy: A retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Abstract Aims To compare predictive significance of sarcopenia and clinical frailty scale in terms of postoperative mortality in patients undergoing emergency laparotomy. Methods In compliance with STROCSS statement standards a retrospective cohort study with prospective data collection approach was conducted. The study period was between January 2017 and January 2022. All adult patients with non-traumatic acute abdominal pathology who underwent emergency laparotomy in our centre were included. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality and secondary outcomes were in-hospital mortality and 90-day mortality. The predictive value of sarcopenia and clinical frailty scale were compared using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and multivariable binary logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 1043 eligible patients were included. The risk of 30-day mortality, in-hospital mortality, and 90-day mortality were 8%, 10%, and 11%, respectively. ROC curve analysis suggested that sarcopenia is a significantly stronger predictor of 30-day mortality (AUC: 0.87 vs 0.70, P<0.0001), in-hospital mortality (AUC: 0.79 vs 0.67, P=0.0011), and 90-day mortality (AUC: 0.79 vs 0.67, P=0.0009) compared with clinical frailty scale. Moreover, multivariable binary logistic regression analysis identified sarcopenia as an independent predictor of mortality (coefficient: 4.22119, P<0.0001) but did not identify clinical frailty score as independent predictor (coefficient: 0.066311, P=0.5544). Conclusions Sarcopenia is a stronger predictor of postoperative mortality compared with clinical frailty score in patients undergoing emergency laparotomy. It cancels out the predictive value of clinical frailty scale in multivariable analyses; hence among the two variables, sarcopenia deserves to be included in preoperative predictive tools.