Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 6, 2022; 10(13): 4321-4323
Published online May 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i13.4321
Improving outcomes in geriatric surgery: Is there more to the equation?
Serene Si Ning Goh, Clement LK Chia
Serene Si Ning Goh, Clement LK Chia, Department of General Surgery, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore 768828, Singapore
Author contributions: Goh SSN conceptualized and wrote the manuscript; Chia CLK conceptualized, vetted and approved the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Clement LK Chia, FRCS, Assistant Professor, Department of General Surgery, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, 90 Yishun Central, Singapore 768828, Singapore. clemchia84@gmail.com
Received: October 25, 2021
Peer-review started: October 25, 2021
First decision: March 7, 2022
Revised: March 7, 2022
Accepted: April 3, 2022
Article in press: April 3, 2022
Published online: May 6, 2022
Processing time: 187 Days and 0.9 Hours
Abstract

The era of geriatric surgery has arrived with increased global life expectancy. The need to optimize outcomes in this group of patients goes beyond traditional outcomes such as postoperative morbidity and mortality indicators. Recognizing risk factors that impact adverse surgical outcomes such as frailty and sarcopenia, individualizing optimization strategies such as prehabilitation and a multidisciplinary geriatric surgical service have been shown to improve postoperative outcomes and help the older surgical patient regain premorbid function and maintain quality of life. There needs to be a concerted effort to increase awareness of this increasingly important topic in practicing surgeons around the world to meet the challenges of the aging population.

Keywords: Geriatric surgery; Risk factors; Prehabilitation; Surgical outcomes; Frailty

Core Tip: Care for the older surgical patient should not only be focused on traditional outcomes of “time to scan, time to surgery or length of stay.” An individualized comprehensive approach taking into consideration premorbid function, comorbidities, personal wishes, quality of life and functional recovery should also be incorporated to ensure that care for this special group of patients is holistic and complete.