Anupama Singh, MD
(She/Her/Hers)
Rank
Fellow or Postdoc
Department
Surgery
Thoracic Surgery
Authors
Anupama Singh, MD, Fatemehsadat Pezeshkian*, MD, Ashley L. Deeb, MD, Miles McAllister, BA, Laura N Frain, MD, Fatima G Wilder, MD, Michael T Jaklitsch, MD, Desiree Steimer, MD
Principal Investigator
Desiree Steimer
Twitter / Website
Twitter: @anupama_singh1
Categories
“Introduction: Limited tools exist in assessing frailty in patients undergoing surgery. Pictorial Fit Frail Scale(PFFS)is a validated, patient-reported frailty assessment tool that is underutilized in surgical assessments. Our aim was to determine if preoperative assessment of PFFS can help risk stratify patients undergoing lung resection.
Methods: PFFS was prospectively administered to all patients>65 years old undergoing lung resection during their initial visit from 12/2020-3/2024. Scores were divided into ‘fit’ (PFFS score:0–0.2) or ‘frail’ cohorts (PFFS score:0.21–1) based on validated categories in the literature. Patient characteristics and postoperative outcomes were compared between the groups.
Results: Frail patients were more likely to be discharged to a rehabilitation facility than fit patients (p=0.002). Despite similar tumor sizes, frail patients were more likely to undergo sublobar resection. In fit patients, lobar and sublobar resections rates were similar. Complication rates were similar between the two groups. Although statistically insignificant, increasing PFFS scores (indicating increased frailty) were associated with longer hospitalizations (β2.39[95%CI:-1.74,6.53] ,p=0.25).
Conclusion: Frailty assessment tools such as PFFS have the potential to identify subclinical frailty and improve risk stratification for patients undergoing lung surgery. Age was similar between fit and frail patients, emphasizing that age alone cannot be used to determine functional status or frailty. Future work will focus on larger sample sizes to identify associations with PFFS scores and postoperative outcomes.”