Identifying Preoperative Frailty and Sarcopenia

Our team at Emory Urology recognizes the importance of identifying frail patients preoperatively. Frailty is a complex, multidimensional, and cyclical state of diminished physiologic reserve that results in decreased resiliency and adaptive capacity, and increased vulnerability to stressors. Frailty puts cancer patients at greater risk of postoperative complications, chemotherapy intolerance, disease progression, and death. We believe identifying frail patients and optimizing them with appropriate pre-habilitation and nutrition can improve patient outcomes.

Frailty Calculators

Immunonutrition

Immunonutrition shakes can play an important role in managing frailty preoperatively, particularly in older adults. These shakes are specially formulated with a combination of nutrients that have been shown to have immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects. They contain a variety of proteins, amino acids, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants (e.g., vitamins C and E), and certain trace elements (e.g., zinc, selenium). Below is a suggested homemade recipe with common home ingredients and nutritional content:

Exercise is an essential component to better preparing for surgery.

At Emory, we are committed to expanding medical knowledge and continuing to improve patient care. If you are interested in seeing how we contributed to the scientific community, feel free to explore research we have published on the topic of frailty.

More than one method can be used to assess frailty. Additional tests to assess a patient’s fitness for surgery can be found here.