"Age is just a number"; frailty as a marker of peri-operative risk in head and neck surgery: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Frailty refers to a patient's reduced capacity to withstand stressors due to a reduction in physiologic reserves. We assessed the impact of frailty on outcomes following head and neck surgery.

Methods: We performed a systematic review in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. Meta-analysis was performed using the Mantel-Haenszel method.

Results: Fourteen studies incorporating 182 059 patients were included in qualitative synthesis with 15 953 (8.8%) of patients deemed as frail. Meta-analysis incorporating nine studies demonstrated that frailty is associated with an increased 30 day postoperative morbidity (OR 2.74; 95% CI 1.98-3.80; p < 0.01) and meta-analysis with six studies suggested increased 30-day mortality (OR 2.94; 95% CI 2.62-3.31; p < 0.01). Preliminary meta-analyses between two and five studies suggested that frail patients had reduced overall survival and were more likely to be discharged to a nonhome location or readmitted within 30 days.

Conclusions: Frailty appears to be associated with poor short-term outcomes following head and neck surgery and may improve understanding of an individual patient's peri-operative risk.