The effect of preoperati̇ve frai̇lty and malnutri̇ti̇on on postoperati̇ve follow-up, treatment and hospi̇tal length of stay i̇n geri̇atri̇c emergency pati̇ents

Physical differences between geriatric patients also lead to differences in the hospitalization process of the patients. In our study, the preoperative frailty and malnutrition status of the patients aged 65 and over who underwent emergency surgery, in the postoperative 1 month period; We aimed to see the effect of hospital stay and follow-up treatment process. The study was carried out with 150 patients aged 65 and over who would undergo emergency surgical intervention after approval ethics committee and written informed consent form from the patients. FRAIL Frailty Scale and Mini Nutritional Assessment Test-Short Form (MNA-SF) were applied to the patients in the preoperative period. Hospitalization processes were examined during the postoperative 30-day period. In this process, the total length of stay of the patients, the number of re-operations, re-admissions to the hospital, the necessity of postoperative intensive care unit (ICU) follow-up, the development of postoperative complications and mortality were examined. In our study, increased frailty and malnutrition levels, prolonged hospital stay (p<0.001, p<0.001), increased need for postoperative ICU follow-up (p<0.001 p=0.001), increased frequency of reoperation (p=0.001, p=0.003), increased postoperative complications (p<0.001, p<0.001) and increased mortality (p<0.001, p<0.001) were found to be statistically significant. While re-admission to hospital increased significantly with frailty level (p=0.002), no statistically significant correlation was found with increase in malnutrition level (p=0.141). As a result; we determined that preoperative fragility and malnutrition might have adverse effects on the hospitalization process of geriatric patients who underwent emergency surgery. We think that routine determination of preoperative frailty and malnutrition may be beneficial in the treatment process of geriatric operative patients. Keywords: Frailty, malnutrition, hospitalization process