Frailty is one of the most important predictors of perioperative risk. Unfortunately, recognizing frailty in the perioperative context is a challenge. This circumstance is at least partially due to the large number of different definitions and assessment tools—a selection of which we presented in our article (1). We completely agree with Lippi’s proposal of “frailty” as an “age-associated syndrome, characterized by decreased biological reserve and resistance to stressors due to functional decline of several physiological systems, which places the individual at enhanced risk of disability, hospitalization and death” (2). Nonetheless, the difficulty of identifying at-risk persons in everyday clinical practice remains. We therefore very much welcome the FRAILOMIC initiative, and we are hopeful that appropriate assessment tools/markers will be developed to allow preoperative detection of vulnerable patients, in order to improve the postoperative outcome of older patients.
Footnotes
Conflict of interest statement
The authors of both contributions declare that no conflict of interest exists.
References
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