A new retrospective cohort study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons finds that “older adults who undergo high-risk emergency general surgery (EGS) spend significantly fewer days living independently at home after surgery than those undergoing lower-risk procedures,” states ACS.
The researchers note that EGS in older adults is “commonly evaluated with short-term outcomes that may not reflect functional recovery,” and that healthy days at home (HDAH) may better reflect patient-centered recovery after EGS because the metric “captures time alive and living outside institutional care.”
Their data analysis found that “high-risk EGS was associated with approximately one-month fewer HDAH in older adults,” and that “dementia and frailty were major predictors of reduced HDAH and should inform patient-centered perioperative counseling.”
The study was funded through a grant from the National Institutes of Health – National Institute on Aging.
The researchers elaborated on their findings in an article on the ACS website titled “High-Risk Emergency Surgery Costs Older Adults About a Month of Time at Home.”
“Healthy days at home captures what patients can do after surgery, not just whether they survive,” said lead author Manuel Castillo-Angeles, MD, MPH, a research scientist in the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It reflects independence, recovery, and quality of life in ways traditional metrics often miss.”
Access the full study here, and read the ACS article about the study here.
