Hamidi M, Zeeshan M, O'Keeffe T, Nisbet B, Northcutt A, Nikolich-Zugich J, Khan M, Kulvatunyou N, Fain M, Joseph B. Am. J. Surg. 2018; 216(6): 1070-1075.
Affiliation
Division of Trauma, Critical Care, Emergency Surgery and Burns, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. Electronic address: bjoseph@surgery.arizona.edu.
BACKGROUND: The aim of our study was to assess the association between frailty and functional status in geriatric trauma patients.
METHODS: 3-year(2013-2015) prospective analysis and included all geriatric trauma patients(≥65y) discharged to a single rehabilitation center from our level-I trauma center. Frailty was measured using Trauma-Specific-Frailty-Index(TSFI) while Functional status was assessed using functional-independence-measure(FIM) at admission and discharge from rehabilitation center. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed.
RESULTS: 267 patients were enrolled. Mean age was 76.9 ± 7.1y, 63.6% were males. Overall, 22.8% were frail, and 37.4% were pre-frail. On linear regression, higher motor-FIM, higher cognitive-FIM scores at admission, and longer length-of-stay at rehab were independently associated with increased discharge FIM score. While, ISS(injury-severity-score), pre-frail and frail status were negatively correlated with FIM gain.
CONCLUSION: Frail patients were less likely to recover to their baseline functional status compared with non-frail patients. Early focused intervention in frail elderly patients is warranted to improve functional status in this population.