A single-center prospective cohort study assessing preoperative gait speed assessment as a prognostic tool for morbidity and mortality in frail elderly patients undergoing abdominal surgery.

Frailty is a significant risk factor for adverse outcomes in elderly surgical patients. Gait speed assessment is a new tool recently used to stratify risk for these pre-operative adverse outcomes. In this prospective study of 392 frail elderly patients undergoing abdominal surgery, we investigated the predictive value of preoperative gait speed for postoperative outcomes.