Frailty in Advanced Heart Failure.

Frailty is defined as a biological syndrome reflecting impaired physiologic reserve and heightened vulnerability to stressors. The evolving profile of heart failure (HF), increased survival of aging patients with complex comorbidities in parallel with the growing population undergoing mechanical circulatory support as lifetime therapy, means that advanced HF specialists are becoming aware of the burden of frailty and its downstream consequences on postintervention outcomes in these patients. The limited data available to date suggest that frailty is highly prevalent in patients with advanced HF and appears to provide prognostic information not captured by traditional risk assessment.