Tailored Perioperative Medicine For Frail Patients Undergoing Vascular Surgery: A Narrative Review.

Abstract

Frailty is a concept that is emerging as an important tool in the preoperative assessment of patients. The incidence of frailty in vascular surgery patients is high and is expected to increase concomitantly with the aging of the population. The identification of these patients and their optimization in the perioperative period can lead to an improvement in their outcomes with a reduction in morbidity and mortality. In this narrative review we address the concept of frailty applied to vascular surgery patients as well as assessment tools for its evaluation. This review focus not only on the most utilized evaluation tools but also on the most recent and specific frailty evaluation instruments that are suitable for vascular surgery patients. Furthermore, we review patient optimization strategies to improve perioperative outcomes.