The United States Census Bureau has projected that adults 65 years and older will outnumber the population under the age of 18 years by 2034. 1 It has also projected that 1 in every 5 US residents will be retirement age by 2030. 2 The increasing number of geriatric patients globally alters the demographics of those seeking medical treatments, including surgical care. As a result, anesthesiologists now frequently face the challenge of caring for frail surgical patients with multiple comorbidities, malnutrition, low functional capacity, and cognitive impairment. 3 Typically, frailty is used to describe the condition of being weak and delicate associated with old age. However, medically, frailty is defined as a state of reduced physiological reserve associated with increased susceptibility to disability and inability to cope with stressors such as surgery. 4 It has been described as a multidimensional syndrome characterized by increased clinical vulnerability. 5 In addition to its negative impacts to patients' inflammatory, metabolic, and immune responses to surgery, frailty also reduces sympathetic reserves, impairing intraoperative hemodynamic responses. 6,7 While frailty is independent of the chronological age of a patient, it is predominantly found in the geriatric population. 8 Santos-Eggimann et al 9 estimated that frailty affects 4% of middle-aged people and 17% of people older than 65 years in the European population. The prevalence of frailty in the geriatric surgical population is estimated to be between 10% and 37%. 5
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