Frailty in elderly patients with acute colonic diverticulitis is associated with worse in-hospital outcomes: a nationwide analysis.

Background: Frailty has been identified as an independent predictor of mortality in the elderly. We investigated the effects of frailty status on in-hospital outcomes of acute colonic diverticulitis (ACD) in the elderly, using the Hospital Frailty Risk Score.

Methods: We used the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) databases from 2016-2020 to identify patients aged ≥75 years hospitalized with ACD. Using a 1:1 matching method, we created propensity-matched cohorts of frail (Hospital Frailty Risk Score ≥5) and non-frail (Hospital Frailty Risk Score ≤4) patients within the ACD population.

Results: We identified 53.3% ACD patients as frail. We matched 21,720 frail ACD patients to an equal number of non-frail ACD patients using propensity score matching. Frail patients exhibited significantly higher mortality rates, longer hospital stays, and greater median inpatient costs. Frail patients also experienced a greater number of complications, including abscess formation, intestinal perforation, gastrointestinal fistula formation, sepsis without shock, sepsis with shock, acute kidney injury, hypovolemic or hemorrhagic shock, need for blood transfusion, cardiac arrest, and need for intensive care (all P-values <0.001). Additionally, frail patients underwent open colectomy and colostomy procedures more frequently, while laparoscopic colectomies were performed less frequently (all P-values <0.001).

Conclusions: In this nationwide analysis, frailty in ACD is strongly associated with worse mortality, longer hospital stays and higher costs, as well as a greater incidence of local and systemic complications. Furthermore, frailty is linked to a greater need for open colectomy and colostomy procedures.