Frailty is an objective method of quantifying a patient’s fitness for surgery. Its clinical use is limited by the time needed to complete, as well as a lack of evidence-based interventions to improve outcomes in identified frail patients. The purpose of this study was to critically analyze the components of the Fried Frailty Criteria, among other preoperative variables, to create a simplified risk assessment amenable to a busy clinical setting, while maintaining prognostic ability for surgical outcomes.

We performed a prospective evaluation of patients that included the 5-component Fried Frailty Criteria, traditional surgical risk assessments, biochemical laboratory values, and clinical and demographic data. Thirty-day postoperative outcomes were the outcomes of interest.

There were 351 consecutive patients undergoing major intra-abdominal operations enrolled. Analysis demonstrated that shrinking and grip strength alone hold the same prognostic information as the full 5-component Fried Frailty Criteria for 30-day morbidity and mortality. The addition of American Society of Anesthesia (ASA) score and serum hemoglobin creates a composite risk score, which facilitates easy classification of patients into discrete low (ref), intermediate (odds ratio [OR] 1.974, 95% CI 1.006 to 3.877, p = 0.048), and high (OR 4.889, 95% CI 2.220 to 10.769, p < 0.001) risk categories, with a corresponding stepwise increase in risk for 30-day postoperative complications. Internal validation by bootstrapping confirmed the results.

This study demonstrated that 2 components of the Fried Frailty Criteria, shrinking and grip strength, hold the same predictive value as the full frailty assessment. When combined with American Society of Anesthesiologists score and serum hemoglobin, they form a straightforward, simple risk classification system with robust prognostic information.