Relationships between frailty and surgical outcomes of palliative surgery for spinal metastases : a prospective cohort study.

Abstract

Aims: Frailty has recently been associated with postoperative complications and clinical outcomes in various fields. This study aimed to assess the relationships between frailty and surgical outcomes of palliative surgery for spinal metastases and assess the usefulness of the modified five-item frailty index (mFI-5) in this population.

Methods: We prospectively evaluated 273 patients who underwent spinal metastasis surgery from June 2015 to December 2021. The mFI-5 was used to assess frailty, with a score of 0 defined as non-frailty, 1 as pre-frailty, and 2 or more as frailty. The following variables were assessed: background characteristics, complications (Clavien-Dindo grade 2 or higher), postoperative clinical outcomes, and life expectancy. The clinical outcomes compared between the three groups were the performance status (PS), Barthel index, and EuroQoL five-dimension questionnaire (EQ-5D) at six months postoperatively. A multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis was performed of variables with values of p < 0.1 on the univariate analysis.

Results: The overall complication rate was 19% (52/273). The complication rate was significantly higher in the frailty group (p = 0.005), and patients with a greater mFI-5 score tended to have a higher incidence of postoperative complications. The Kaplan-Meier curve showed that the non-frailty group had a significantly longer survival time than the pre-frailty and frailty groups (p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis suggested that mFI-5 is not predictive of postoperative complications and improvement of the EQ-5D, while is predictive of improvement of the PS (odds ratio (OR) 4.22) and Barthel index (OR 4.49).

Conclusion: The current study suggested that mFI-5 is not predictive of postoperative complications and improvement of the EQ-5D, while is predictive of improvement of the PS and Barthel index. Furthermore, palliative surgery for spinal metastases improved the PS, Barthel index, and EQ-5D, even in patients with frailty.