Frailty in Vascular Patients Undergoing Surgery
Frailty in Vascular Patients Undergoing Surgery
An observational cohort study of the frailty of vascular surgery patients undergoing
 intervention and their outcomes.
Vascular surgical operations are major procedures with significant associated morbidity and
 mortality. Frailty is a major factor influencing surgical outcome, but the effect on
 morbidity/mortality and quality of life is poorly understood in vascular surgery. Activity
 levels play a significant role in frailty and in pre-intervention preparation. It is
 anticipated that as frailty levels increase, activity levels decrease. It is hypothesised
 that vascular surgery patients suffer from a high prevalence of frailty and that increasing
 frailty will lead to increased morbidity and mortality and decreased quality of life.

 This initial study will provide the foundations to identify targets for improvement in degree
 of frailty, appropriateness for surgery and outcome.

 This project aims to:

 Assess and quantify the prevalence of frailty as well as recording activity levels in the
 vascular surgery patient cohort Explore the impact of frailty and pre-op activity on surgical
 outcomes in the vascular surgical patient cohort to guide surgical treatments as well as
 future studies aimed at improving frailty and activity and thereby quality of life.

 Identification of an appropriate metric of frailty for this population group to include
 activity, is a secondary aim of this proposal.
Inclusion Criteria:

 1. All patients attending for aortic aneurysm repair, carotid artery surgery and lower
 limb revascularisation under the care of the Vascular Surgery team

 2. Willing and able to give informed written consent

 Exclusion Criteria:

 1. Those unable to give informed written consent

 2. Those <18 years of age

 3. In the opinion of the investigator unable or unwilling to comply with the requirements
 of the study