Preoperative ANemiA among the elderly undergoing major abdominal surgery (PANAMA) study: Protocol for a single-center observational cohort study of preoperative anemia management and the impact on healthcare outcomes

Preoperative anemia in older individuals undergoing major abdominal surgery is associated with early postoperative morbidity: a prospective observational study

PURPOSE

Preoperative anemia is associated with poor postoperative outcomes. Older patients have limited physiologic reserves, which renders them vulnerable to the stress of major abdominal surgery. We aimed to determine if the severity of preoperative anemia is associated with early postoperative morbidity among older patients undergoing major abdominal surgery.

METHODS

Ethics approval was obtained from SingHealth Centralized Institutional Review Board. This is a prospective observational study conducted in the preoperative anesthesia clinic of a tertiary Singapore hospital from 2017 to 2021. Patient demographic data, comorbidities, and intraoperative details were collected. Outcome measures included blood transfusions, complications according to the Postoperative Morbidity Survey, days alive and out of hospital (DaOH), length of hospital stay, and mortality.

RESULTS

A total of 469 patients were analyzed, 37.5% of whom had preoperative anemia (serum hemoglobin of < 13 g·dL-1 in males and < 12 g·dL-1 in females). Anemia was significantly associated with older age, a higher age-adjusted Comprehensive Complication Index score, a higher incidence of diabetes mellitus, and a higher proportion of patients with an American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status of III or IV. The severity of anemia was associated with the presence of early postoperative morbidity at day 5, increased blood transfusions, longer length of hospital stay, and fewer DaOH at 30 days and six months.

CONCLUSION

Anemia is significantly associated with poorer postoperative outcomes in the older population. The impact of anemia on postoperative outcomes could be further evaluated with quality of life indicators, patient-reported outcome measures, and health economic tools.

Prevalence and factors associated with preoperative anemia among adult patients scheduled for major elective surgery at University hospital in Northwest Ethiopia; a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Anemia is the most common hematological finding in surgical patients. One-third of surgical patients were anemic during preoperative assessment. The presence of preoperative anemia was found to be related with increased morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay, intensive care unit admissions and postoperative infections.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the prevalence and factors associated with preoperative anemia among adult patients scheduled for major elective surgery at University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, 2020.

METHODS

After obtaining an ethical approval, hospital-based cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted from June to August 2020 in University of Gondar Hospital. Full blood count within two weeks of preoperative period was considered valid if there were no any factors that affect the hematologic system Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations and binary logistic regression analysis were performed to identify factors associated withpreoperative anemia. The strength of the association was presented using AOR with 95% confidence interval and p-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

RESULT

A total of 185 patients enrolled with 100% response rate. We observed preoperative anemia in 36.8% patients. The multi-variable binary logistic analysis showed that ASA II and III [AOR: 3.8, CI: 1.6-9.2], recent prior surgery [AOR: 3.3, CI: 1.3-8.5], history of malignancy [AOR: 9.4, CI: 2.0-43.4], orthopedic procedure [AOR: 11.2, CI: 4.0-31.6] and gynecologic procedure [AOR: 5.2, CI: 1.7-14.5] were significantly associated with preoperative anemia.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of preoperative anemia was high and ASA ≥2, recent prior surgery, history of malignancy, orthopedic surgery and gynecologic procedure were significantly associated with preoperative anemia. We recommend to clinicians to aim prevention, early detection and treatment of preoperative anemia among adult patients scheduled for major elective surgery to reduce risk of anemia and related adverse outcomes.

Anemia and perioperative mortality in non-cardiac surgery patients: a secondary analysis based on a single-center retrospective study

Background

Evidence regarding the relationship between anemia and perioperative prognosis is controversial. The study was conducted to highlight the specific relationship between anemia and perioperative mortality in non-cardiac surgery patients over 18 years of age.

Methods

This study was a retrospective analysis of the electronic medical records of 90,784 patients at the Singapore General Hospital from January 1, 2012 to October 31, 2016. Multivariate regression, propensity score analysis, doubly robust estimation, and an inverse probability-weighting model was used to ensure the robustness of our findings.

Results

We identified 85,989 patients, of whom75, 163 had none or mild anemia (Hemoglobin>90g/L) and 10,826 had moderate or severe anemia (Hemoglobin≤90g/L). 8,857 patients in each study exposure group had similar propensity scores and were included in the analyses. In the doubly robust model, postoperative 30-day mortality rate was increased by 0.51% (n = 219) in moderate or severe anemia group (Odds Ratio, 1.510; 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 1.049 to 2.174) compared with none or mild anemia group (2.47% vs.1.22%, P<0.001). Moderate or severe anemia was also associated with increased postoperative blood transfusion rates (OR, 5.608; 95% CI, 4.026 to 7.811, P < 0.001). There was no statistical difference in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission rate among different anemia groups within 30 days after surgery (P=0.104).

Discussion

In patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery over 18 years old, moderate or severe preoperative anemia would increase the occurrence of postoperative blood transfusion and the risk of death, rather than ICU admission within 30 days after surgery.

A Review of the Development and Application of Generic Preference-Based Instruments with the Older Population

Older people (aged 65 years and over) are the fastest growing age cohort in the majority of developed countries, and the proportion of individuals defined as the oldest old (aged 80 years and over) living with physical frailty and cognitive impairment is rising. These population changes put increasing pressure on health and aged care services, thus it is important to assess the cost effectiveness of interventions targeted for older people across health and aged care sectors to identify interventions with the strongest capacity to enhance older peoples' quality of life and provide value for money. Cost-utility analysis (CUA) is a form of economic evaluation that typically uses preference-based instruments to measure and value health-related quality of life for the calculation of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYS) to enable comparisons of the cost effectiveness of different interventions. A variety of generic preference-based instruments have been used to measure older people's quality of life, including the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT); Health Utility Index Mark 2 (HUI2); Health Utility Index Mark 3 (HUI3); Short-Form-6 Dimensions (SF-6D); Assessment of Quality of Life-6 dimensions (AQoL-6D); Assessment of Quality of Life-8 dimensions (AQoL-8D); Quality of Wellbeing Scale-Self-Administered (QWB-SA); 15 Dimensions (15D); EuroQol-5 dimensions (EQ-5D); and an older person specific preference-based instrument-the Investigating Choice Experiments Capability Measure for older people (ICECAP-O). This article reviews the development and application of these instruments within the older population and discusses the issues surrounding their use with this population. Areas for further research relating to the development and application of generic preference-based instruments with populations of older people are also highlighted.

Preoperative Anemia and Postoperative Mortality in Patients with Aortic Stenosis Treated with Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND Patients with severe aortic stenosis who have comorbidities that prevent general anesthesia and open cardiothoracic surgery are candidates for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). However, TAVI can result in patient mortality following the procedure. This systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis aimed to determine the relationship between preoperative anemia and postoperative mortality in patients following TAVI. MATERIAL AND METHODS PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and the Web of Science were systematically searched from their inception to February 2019 for relevant published studies that included patients with bicuspid aortic valve stenosis and tricuspid aortic valve stenosis who underwent TAVI and who had preoperative data on hemoglobin levels. The pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a random-effects generic inverse variance method. RESULTS Six published studies that involved 6,406 patients with aortic stenosis were included in the meta-analysis. There was no significant difference observed for the final pooled result for patients with and without anemia for the short-term 30-day postoperative mortality (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 0.77-2.35). However, long-term mortality rates were significantly worse in patients with preoperative anemia compared with those without anemia (OR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.34-2.35). CONCLUSIONS Systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis showed that pre-procedural anemia reduced long-term mortality following TAVI. This finding supports the need to correct preoperative anemia in patients with aortic stenosis to improve patient outcome following TAVI.