Frailty is associated with 90-day mortality in urgent thoracic surgery conditions.

Objective: In patients undergoing elective thoracic surgery, frailty is associated with worse outcomes. However, the magnitude by which frailty influences outcomes of urgent thoracic surgery (UTS) is unknown. Methods: We identified patients admitted with a UTS condition from January to September 2017 in the National Readmissions Database. UTS conditions were classified as esophageal perforation, hemo/pneumothorax, rib fracture, and obstructed hiatal hernia. Outcome of interest was mortality within 90 days of index admission. Frailty score was calculated using a deficit accumulation method. Cox proportional hazard modeling was used to calculate a hazard ratio for each combination of UTS disease type and frailty score, adjusted for sex, insurance payor, hospital size, and hospital and patient location, and was compared with the effect of frailty on elective lung lobectomy. Results: We identified 107,487 patients with a UTS condition. Among UTS conditions overall, increasing frailty elements were associated with increased mortality (hazard ratio, 2270; 95% CI, 1463-3523; P < .001). Compared with patients without frailty undergoing elective lobectomy, increasing frailty demonstrated trending toward increased mortality in all diagnoses. The magnitude of the effect of frailty on 90-day mortality differed depending on the disease and level of frailty. Conclusions: The effect of frailty on 90-day mortality after admission for urgent thoracic surgery conditions varies by disease type and level of frailty. Among UTS disease types, increasing frailty was associated with a higher 90-day risk of mortality. These findings suggest a valuable role for frailty evaluation in both clinical settings and administrative data for risk assessment.

Risk Factors for Chronic Atrial Fibrillation Following Lung Lobectomy.

INTRODUCTION: Postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) is a common complication following lung lobectomy and is associated with increased risk of stroke, mortality, and prolonged hospital length of stay. The purpose of this study was to define the risk factors for POAF after lobectomy, hypothesizing that operative approach would be associated with risk of chronic POAF. METHODS: The TriNetX database was used to identify adult patients with no history of arrythmia receiving elective lung lobectomy for cancer from 7/6/2003-7/6/2023. Patients were categorized by approach: video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) or open. The outcome of interest was the presence of POAF occurring at 1-3 months ("early") and 12-24 months postop ("chronic"). Propensity matching was performed to reduce bias between cohorts. RESULTS: We identified 22,998 patients: 8472 (36.8%) who received open and 14,526 (63.2%) VATS lobectomy. The rate of early POAF was 3.7% of VATS and 5.3% of open patients. The rate of chronic POAF was 5.5 % of VATS patients and 6.2% of open lobectomy patients. Propensity matching decreased bias between the approach groups, creating 7942 pairs for analysis. After matching, the risk of early POAF was greater in the open approach (5.5% open vs 3.4% VATS, risk ratio 1.607 (95% confidence interval 1.385-1.865), P < 0.001). Chronic POAF was (also) higher in the open approach (6.3% open vs 5.2% VATS, Risk Ratio 1.211 (95%CI 1.067-1.374), P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) occurs more commonly after open lobectomy, both acutely and chronically. Providers should counsel patients about the risk of chronic arrythmia after lung resection.