Frailty was a predictor of adverse events, acute length of stay, and in-hospital mortality after traumatic spinal cord injury in patients less than 75 years of age, a study published in Journal of Neurotrauma suggests.
The study was coauthored by John Street, MD, PhD, University of British Columbia and Vancouver Spine Surgery Institute (Vancouver, Canada) and colleagues from University of British Columbia, Vancouver Spine Surgery Institute, Rick Hansen Institute (Vancouver), and Northern Ontario School of Medicine (Thunder Bay).
In the study, they examined the effect of patient age, Total Motor Score on admission, and score on a frailty index on adverse events, acute length of hospital stay, in-hospital death, and discharge destination (home or other).
They also identified the need for more accurate tools to measure frailty in the elderly, a media release from Mary Ann Liebert Inc / Genetic Engineering News notes.
“The observation that frailty is an important risk factor for poor post-operative outcomes in younger spinal cord-injured individuals should help treating physicians reduce the risks of adverse events and other complications,” says W. Dalton Dietrich, PhD, Deputy Editor of Journal of Neurotrauma, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, University of Miami (FL).
[Source(s): Mary Ann Liebert Inc / Genetic Engineering News, EurekAlert]
