The number of people, undergoing geriatrics increased during the past two decades, while the number of elderly patients who undergo surgery has concurrently spiked. Sometimes, when recommending surgery for their elderly patients, doctors fail to adequately factor fragility into the equation and this leads to unforeseen difficulties, and in some cases death. Now, a team of researchers has created a new multidimensional frailty score to help predict postoperative outcomes in older adults, the Medical Daily reported.

In the U.S., more than half of all operations are performed on patients who are older than 65. Although for every case physicians estimate operative risk, their predictive tools are limited and focus on a single organ system or solitary event.

Having decided to design a new model for assessing outcomes in older surgical patients, the team of researchers began by enrolling 275 patients over the age of 65 who were undergoing intermediate- or high-risk elective surgical procedures. Next, the team created a new model based on the comprehensive geriatric assessment (or CGA), which is widely used by doctors to detect disabilities and conditions associated with frailty in geriatric patients. Along with the CGA, the team of researchers analyzed specific patient characteristics.

Following surgery, many of the patients fared well, but others, not so much. Twenty-five patients (9.1 percent) died, while 29 patients (10.5 percent) experienced at least one post-surgical complication. Another 24 patients (8.7 percent) had to be discharged to nursing facilities.

Crunching the numbers on data collected both pre- and post-surgery, the team of researchers discovered certain distinct patterns. For example, malignant disease and low serum albumin levels were more common among the patients who died.

Researchers believe their new model would be a more useful tool — compared to the current methods — to help physicians and surgeons predict those patients most likely to survive (and thrive!) following geriatric surgery.