Impact of Frailty on Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Critical Limb Ischemia

BACKGROUND:The predictive ability of patient frailty on clinical outcomes after revascularization in patients with critical limb ischemia remains largely unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS:We enrolled 643 patients with critical limb ischemia treated with endovascular therapy (N=486) or bypass surgery (N=157) in January 2010 to January 2016, and prospectively assessed them using a 9-level clinical frailty scale (CFS). Patients were divided into 3 groups according to CFS levelslow (CFS level, 1–3; N=234), intermediate (CFS level, 4–6; N=196), and high (CFS level, 7–9; N=213) groups. Clinical follow-up rate was 95.8% at 2 years. In the low, intermediate, and high CFS groups, 2-year overall survival rates were 80.5%, 63.1%, and 49.3% (P