“Frailty and Intensive Care”, Emerging Topic Amidst Economic Crisis in Sri Lanka

With the increase in the aging population, the ICU requirement for frail patients is increasing. These patients have a lesser ability to recover from a stressor and there’s increased vulnerability for further complications such as delirium, hospitalacquired infections, delay in weaning, and early organ dysfunction. Hence, they will have a prolonged length of ICU stay, higher morbidity and mortality and also increased disability and poor quality of life even after discharge. Even though frailty demands more intensive care facility and resource utilization, the outcome is poorer compared to the non-frail population. Hence, it is of utmost importance to consider frailty in offering intensive care treatment. However, the ICU prognostic markers such as APACHE, and SOFA are based on medical and biochemical values rather than functional status. It is important to understand that the recovery from a critical illness not only depends on the severity of the acute disease but also on the functional capacity of the patient and frailty is described in such terms.