Frailty syndrome as an independent predictor of unfavorable outcome in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting

Purpose To assess the prevalence of frailty in the preoperative period and to evaluate its effect on the risk of complications and adverse outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods 303 patients undergoing preoperative management for elective primary CABG were recruited in the study. The study cohort was divided into three groups depending on the PRISMA-7 scores suggesting the presence or absence of frailty and the presence of prefrailty. Statistical analysis was performed using the commercially available software package STATISTICA 8.0.360.0 for Windows (StatSoft, Inc., USA) and SPSS Statistics v. 17.0.0. Results 46 (15%) patients had frailty, while 49 (16%) patients were diagnosed with prefrailty. 208 (69%) patients did not have any signs of frailty. All three groups had significant age differences, therefore only elderly patients aged of 67.0±6.5 years with frailty were allocated for subsequent analysis (prefrailty group - 62.3±7.4 years old, patients without frailty - 60.0±7.7 years, p=0.003). Patients with frailty or prefrailty more often suffered from diabetes mellitus (patients without frailty - 19.2%, prefrailty group - 30.6% and frailty group - 28.3%, p=0.05), arterial hypertension (69.2%, 93.9% and 95.7%, respectively, p<0.001), atrial fibrillation or flutter (7.2%, 14.3% and 19.6%, respectively, p=0.03), chronic heart failure class 3–4 (7.2%, 10.2% and 8.7%, respectively, p=0.002), and peripheral arterial disease (22.6%, 38.8% and 58.7%, respectively, p<0.001). Three groups were comparable in main clinical and demographic parameters. There were no significant differences found in the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation or flutter (15.9%, 8.2% and 6.5%, respectively, p=0.07) and infections (1.9%, 0% and 4.3%, respectively, p=0.640). The incidence of myocardial infarction in the intra- and early postoperative period after CABG did not differ significantly between the groups (0.5%, 2% and 0%, respectively, p=0.328) as well as the incidence of stroke (2.4%, 2% and 0%, respectively, p=0.640). Patients with frailty and prefrailty had significantly higher cerebrovascular and cardiovascular mortality compared to those without frailty (8.2%, 2.2% and 0.5%, respectively, p=0.001). Conclusion Almost 15% of patients referred to CABG suffered from frailty. The presence of prefrailty or frailty increases the risk of death in the early postoperative period after CABG. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None