Association of clinical frailty with the development and adverse outcomes of venous diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Chun Yin Anson Ho, Yiu Che Chan, Grace C. CheungBackground
Clinical frailty is an emerging health problem and a risk factor for venous disease and its adverse outcomes. This review and meta-analysis will determine the association of frailty in the development of venous diseases and related adverse outcomes.
Materials and methods
A literature review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Searches were done in PubMed and Embase, from 1 January 2007 to 1 January 2025. Articles that were not related to frailty and venous disease were excluded. References from review papers were further screened following the same inclusion and exclusion criteria. R studio was used for the meta-analysis of the studies on non-postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) and pulmonary embolism (PE).
Results
A total of 1338 articles were retrieved, and 72 papers, involving 6,407,901 patients, were included in the final review. Sixty-one studies assessed frailty and postoperative complications, and 65% reported that frail patients had a higher risk of postoperative VTE (
Conclusion
Clinical frailty is associated with an increased risk of VTE and adverse outcomes in venous disease, although the certainty of evidence is limited by substantial heterogeneity and methodological differences among studies.