Brief Preoperative Screening for Frailty and Cognitive Impairment Predicts Delirium after Spine Surgery

ConclusionsScreening for frailty and cognitive impairment preoperatively using the FRAIL scale and the Animal Verbal Fluency test in older elective spine surgery patients identifies those at high risk for the development of postoperative delirium.Editor ’s PerspectiveWhat We Already Know about This TopicPostoperative delirium is a common complication in older surgical patients.Frailty and cognitive impairment are associated with postoperative delirium but are rarely assessed preoperatively. This may be due to the time and burden required for screening.What This Article Tells Us That Is NewScreening for frailty and cognitive impairment preoperatively using the brief FRAIL (measuring fatigue, resistance, ambulation, illness, and weight loss) scale and the Animal Verbal Fluency test in older elective spine surgery patients identifies those at high risk for the development of postoperative delirium.
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research