Improvement of Perioperative Care of Elderly Patients

In Germany every second inpatient surgical intervention is performed on patients aged 60 years and above. These patients often offer an extensive set of risk factors such as frailty, malnutrition, poor physical fitness and multi-morbidity that may in turn lead to longer hospitalizations and decline of health and functional status after surgery. An age-related increase in postoperative complications, such as postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) and delirium is associated with a higher rate of postoperative morbidity, mortality and longer hospitalization. Early detection of risk factors and implementation of prophylactic measures is important to reduce postoperative complications and improve clinical outcomes in elderly patients. The aim of our study is to develop and verify a protocol - which allows for a systematic evaluation of risk factors and the implementation of prophylactic or therapeutic measures in order to optimize the postoperative outcome. The feasibility of our protocol will be verified in clinical practice by systematic process evaluations.