(HealthDay News) — For community-dwelling older adults, one-year mortality after surgery is 13.4%, with higher mortality for nonelective than elective procedures, according to a study published online Oct. 19 in JAMA Surgery.
Thomas M. Gill, MD, from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT, and colleagues conducted a prospective longitudinal cohort study with one-year follow-up involving 5,590 community-living fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older to examine population-based estimates of mortality after major surgery. Data were included for 1,193 major surgeries performed from 2011 to 2017.
The researchers identified 206 deaths during the one-year follow-up period, representing 872,096 survey-weighted deaths and 13.4% mortality. The mortality rates were 7.4 and 22.3% for elective surgeries and nonelective surgeries, respectively. One-year mortality was 6 and 27.8% for those who were nonfrail and frail, respectively, and was 11.6 and 32.7% for those without dementia and for those with probable dementia, respectively. The age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratios for one-year mortality were 4.41 and 2.18 for frailty and probable dementia, respectively, with restricted mean survival time of 48.8 and 44.9 days, respectively.
“Our findings suggest substantial differences in one-year mortality after major surgery across distinct subgroups of older persons and highlight the potential prognostic value of geriatric conditions such as frailty and dementia,” the authors write.
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