Pre-Operative Frailty Status Is Associated with Cardiac Rehabilitation Completion: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

While previous investigations have demonstrated the benefit of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on outcomes after cardiac surgery, the association between pre-operative frailty and post-operative CR completion is unclear. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to determine if pre-operative frailty scores impacted CR completion post-operatively and if CR completion influenced frailty scores in 114 cardiac surgery patients. Frailty was assessed with the use of the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), the Modified Fried Criteria (MFC), the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), and the Functional Frailty Index (FFI).

The impact of frailty on functional survival in patients 1 year after cardiac surgery.

Objective: This study determined whether frailty provides incremental value to the European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation II in identifying patients at risk of poor 1-year functional survival.

Methods: This prospective study in patients undergoing cardiac surgery defined frailty using 3 common definitions: (1) the Modified Fried Criteria; (2) the Short Physical Performance Battery; and (3) the Clinical Frailty Scale. The primary outcome was functional survival, defined as being alive at 1 year postsurgery with a health-related quality of life score greater than 60 on the EuroQol-Visual Analogue Scale.