Conclusion Geriatric syndromes are important prognostic factors for postoperative complications .
Background Elective surgeries can be associated with significant harm to older adults .
The present study aim ed to identify the prognostic factors associated with the development of postoperative complications among older adults undergoing elective surgery .
Components of geriatric assessments predict thoracic surgery outcomes.
BACKGROUND No tool currently exists to rapidly allow surgeons to objective ly quantify surgical risk in geriatric patients . The goal of our prospect i ve study was to determine if individual questions extracted from vali date d screens for common geriatric syndromes would have predictive value for surgical risk in geriatric patients with thoracic neoplasms . METHODS Patients ≥ 70 y old were recruited to participate in a prospect i ve , IRB-approved study involving the preoperative administration of vali date d screening tests . Patients were given the  geriatric depression scale ( GDS ) , nutrition screening initiative nutritional health checklist ( NSI NHC ) , mini mental status exam ( MMSE ) , brief fatigue inventory ( BFI ) , and assessed for activities of daily living ( ADLs ) and instrumental activities of daily living ( IADLs ) .  All patients enrolled in this study were scheduled for thoracic surgery . RESULTS Patients who responded to having a dependency in the IADL " shopping " were more likely to have major complications and to be discharged to a non-home location than those without a dependency ( P = 0.011 , 0.003 ) . Patients who answered " yes " to questions 1 , 9 , and 10 of the NSI NHC had a longer mean length of stay compared with patients who answered " no " ( P = 0.039 , 0.010 , 0.031 ) . Answering " yes " to GDS question 2 correlated with the incidence of major complications ( r = 0.270 P = 0.037 ) . Answering " yes " to GDS question 12 increased the likelihood of being discharged to a non-home location postoperatively ( odds ratio = 11.64 , 95 % CI , 0.68 - 202.86 , P = 0.047 ) . CONCLUSIONS Our data indicate that an abbreviated , rapid presurgical assessment can be developed for estimating operative risk , length of stay , and discharge destination in geriatric patients with thoracic malignancies using individual questions from previously vali date d screening tools
Conclusion Geriatric syndromes are important prognostic factors for postoperative complications .
Background Elective surgeries can be associated with significant harm to older adults .
The present study aim ed to identify the prognostic factors associated with the development of postoperative complications among older adults undergoing elective surgery .