Intensive Care Network Podcasts

Frailty is a state of reduced physical, physiological and cognitive reserve. Tools to measure frailty which were developed in geriatric medicine practice, have over recent years been applied to patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Studies in the ICU suggest that frailty is associated with reduced reduced likelihood of discharge home and reduced survival at one year. Survivors also report lower quality of life measures on both physical and mental assessments. The most common of frailty assessment tool used in the ICU, is the Clinical Frailty Scale which has also been recently adopted by The Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) as part of routine data collection on all ICU admissions. Last year, for the first time 39 sites submitted data about frailty on over 10,000 ICU admissions. Frail patients were more commonly older women admitted with medical diagnoses. Even after adjusting for age, medical co-morbidities and acute severity of illness, frailty was an independent predic