PMID- 37728372 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20240223 LR - 20240223 IS - 1547-5646 (Electronic) IS - 1547-5646 (Linking) VI - 39 IP - 6 DP - 2023 Dec 1 TI - Adverse effects of frailty on the outcomes of surgery for degenerative cervical myelopathy: results from a prospective multicenter international data set of 757 patients. PG - 815-821 LID - 10.3171/2023.6.SPINE23461 [doi] AB - OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to determine the effect of the degree of frailty on long-term neurological and functional outcomes after surgery for degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM). METHODS: A combined database of patients enrolled in the Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy-North America and Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy-International prospective international multicenter observational studies who underwent surgery for DCM was used as the source data. All patients underwent baseline and follow-up assessment at 2 years after surgery for functional, disability, and quality of life measurements (modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association [mJOA] scale, Neck Disability Index, SF-36 physical and mental component summary scores). Patients were separated into 4 groups according to their baseline modified frailty index 5-point scale score: not frail, pre-frail, frail, and severely frail. Differences among groups were analyzed at baseline and at 2 years after surgery, including change in scores (delta values) and the odds ratio of achieving the minimum clinically important difference (MCID) through univariate and multivariable logistic regression adjusting for age, approach, number of levels treated, and sex. RESULTS: A total of 757 patients (63% male) with a mean age of 56 (95% CI 55.5-57.2) years were included: 470 patients underwent an anterior approach, 310 had a posterior approach, and 23 had a combined anterior/posterior approach. A total of 50% (n = 378) of patients were classified as not frail, with 33% (n = 250) pre-frail, 13% (n = 101) frail, and 4% (n = 28) severely frail. The baseline mJOA score was significantly lower with increasing frailty (14.00 [95% CI 13.75-14.19] for not frail vs 9.71 [95% CI 9.01-10.42] for severely frail patients; p < 0.05), but the change at 2 years was not significantly different among all groups (2.43 [95% CI 2.16-2.71] for not frail vs 2.56 [95% CI 1.10-4.02] for severely frail). The SF-36 delta values were also not different among groups, but significantly worse at baseline with increasing frailty. The odds ratio of achieving MCID for mJOA was significantly higher in the not frail group (1.89 [95% CI 1.36-2.61]; p < 0.05) compared to the other frailty cohorts, which remained after adjusting for age, approach, levels treated, and sex. The odds ratio of achieving MCID for the SF-36 domains was similar among all frailty groups. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing frailty is associated with worse baseline functional and quality of life measures in patients undergoing surgery for DCM. Frailty does not affect the magnitude of improvement in outcome measures after surgery, but reduces the chance of achieving the MCID for functional impairment significantly. Preoperative frailty assessment can therefore help guide clinicians in managing expectations after surgery for DCM. Potentially modifiable factors should be optimized in frail patients preoperatively to enhance functional outcomes. FAU - Wilson, Jamie R F AU - Wilson JRF AD - 1Department of Neurosurgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska. FAU - Badhiwala, Jetan H AU - Badhiwala JH AD - 2Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery and Spine Program, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. FAU - Moghaddamjou, Ali AU - Moghaddamjou A AD - 2Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery and Spine Program, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. AD - 3Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. FAU - Vaccaro, Alexander R AU - Vaccaro AR AD - 4Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rothman Orthopedic Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. FAU - Arnold, Paul M AU - Arnold PM AD - 5Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois. FAU - Bartels, Ronald H M A AU - Bartels RHMA AD - 6Department of Neurosurgery, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. FAU - Barbagallo, Giuseppe AU - Barbagallo G AD - 7Department of Neurosurgery, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele Catania, Italy; and. FAU - Fehlings, Michael G AU - Fehlings MG AD - 2Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery and Spine Program, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. AD - 3Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. AD - 8Division of Neurosurgery, Krembil Neuroscience Centre, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20230818 PL - United States TA - J Neurosurg Spine JT - Journal of neurosurgery. Spine JID - 101223545 SB - IM MH - Female MH - Humans MH - Male MH - Middle Aged MH - Cervical Vertebrae/surgery MH - *Frailty/complications/surgery MH - Neck MH - Prospective Studies MH - Quality of Life MH - *Spinal Cord Diseases/surgery MH - Treatment Outcome OTO - NOTNLM OT - degenerative cervical myelopathy OT - elderly OT - frailty OT - outcomes OT - surgery EDAT- 2023/09/20 12:52 MHDA- 2023/12/04 12:42 CRDT- 2023/09/20 09:12 PHST- 2023/05/02 00:00 [received] PHST- 2023/06/15 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2023/12/04 12:42 [medline] PHST- 2023/09/20 12:52 [pubmed] PHST- 2023/09/20 09:12 [entrez] AID - 10.3171/2023.6.SPINE23461 [doi] PST - epublish SO - J Neurosurg Spine. 2023 Aug 18;39(6):815-821. doi: 10.3171/2023.6.SPINE23461. Print 2023 Dec 1.