Changes in frailty among patients hospitalized for spine pathologies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany—a nationwide observational study.

Purpose: In spine care, frailty is associated with poor outcomes. The aim of this study was to describe changes in frailty in spine care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and their relation to surgical management and outcomes. Methods: Patients hospitalized for spine pathologies between January 1, 2019, and May 17, 2022, within a nationwide network of 76 hospitals in Germany were retrospectively included. Patient frailty, types of surgery, and in-hospital mortality rates were compared between pandemic and pre-pandemic periods. Results: Of the 223,418 included patients with spine pathologies, 151,766 were admitted during the pandemic and 71,652 during corresponding pre-pandemic periods in 2019. During the pandemic, the proportion of high-frailty patients increased from a range of 5.1–6.1% to 6.5–8.8% (p < 0.01), while the proportion of low frailty patients decreased from a range of 70.5–71.4% to 65.5–70.1% (p < 0.01). In most phases of the pandemic, the Elixhauser comorbidity index (ECI) showed larger increases among high compared to low frailty patients (by 0.2–1.8 vs. 0.2–0.8 [p < 0.01]). Changes in rates of spine surgery were associated with frailty, most clearly in rates of spine fusion, showing consistent increases among low frailty patients (by 2.2–2.5%) versus decreases (by 0.3–0.8%) among high-frailty patients (p < 0.02). Changes in rates of in-hospital mortality were not associated with frailty. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of high-frailty patients increased among those hospitalized for spine pathologies in Germany. Low frailty was associated with a rise in rates of spine surgery and high frailty with comparably larger increases in rates of comorbidities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]