• Gary Tse, Mengqi Gong, Sunny Hei Wong, WuWilliam K KWKKLi Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, People's Republic of China; Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease, The Chines, George Bazoukis, Konstantinos Lampropoulos, Wing Tak Wong, Yunlong Xia, WongMartin C SMCSJC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China; State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease, Chinese University of Hong Kong., Tong Liu, Jean Woo, and International Health Informatics Study (IHIS) Network.
• Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, People's Republic of China; Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: tseg@cuhk.edu.hk.
• J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018 Mar 1; 19 (3): 255-261.e1.

BackgroundFrailty has been identified as a risk factor for adverse clinical outcomes after cardiac intervention or surgery. However, whether it increases the risk of adverse outcomes in patients undergoing left ventricular assist device (LVAD) therapy has been controversial. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the frailty measures and clinical outcomes of length of stay and mortality in this setting.MethodsPubMed and Embase were searched until September 11, 2017, for studies evaluating the association between frailty and clinical outcomes in advanced heart failure patients undergoing LVAD implantation.ResultsA total of 46 and 79 entries were retrieved from our search strategy. A total of 13 studies involving 3435 patients were included in the final meta-analysis (mean age: 57.7 ± 15.3 years; 79% male, follow-up duration was 13 ± 14 months). Compared to nonfrail patients (n = 2721), frail patients (n = 579) had significantly longer time-to-extubation (n = 3; mean difference: 45 ± 6 hours; I2: 0%) and hospital length of stay (n = 4; mean difference: 2.9 ± 1.2 days; P = .001; I2: 21%). Frailty was not a predictor of inpatient or short-term mortality [n = 3; hazard ratio (HR): 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.66-2.26; P > .05; I2: 0%] but predicted long-term mortality (n = 7; HR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.15-1.80; P = .001; I2: 0%).ConclusionsFrailty leads to significantly longer time to extubation, hospital length of stay, and long-term mortality in advanced heart failure patients who have undergone LVAD implantation. Older patients being considered for LVAD implantation should therefore be assessed for frailty status. The risk and benefit of the procedure should be explained to the patient, emphasizing that frailty increases the likelihood of adverse clinical outcomes.Copyright © 2017 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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