Frailty in elderly patients with acute appendicitis

Purpose Acute appendicitis in the elderly is becoming increasingly recognized for its often severe course. For various elective and urgent operations in older patients, frailty is a risk factor for poor outcomes. However, there is a lack of data on frailty in elderly patients with acute appendicitis. Methods Patients over 65 years old who underwent surgery for acute appendicitis in three hospitals between January 2015 and September 2020 were assessed with the Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS) and the modified Frailty Index (mFI). Outcomes of interest, including morbidity, mortality, and length of stay, were recorded. Results While frailty can be measured with both tests, the mFI has better applicability and takes significantly less time to implement compared to the HFRS (21.6 s vs. 80.3 s, p