Background: Postoperative complications are associated with a poor long-term prognosis after resection of colorectal liver metastases via an undetermined mechanism. The preoperative systemic inflammatory response, itself a predictor of poor survival, was recently shown to independently predict postoperative infectious complications after primary colorectal cancer resection.
Objective: To examine the association of postoperative infectious complications with preoperative systemic inflammation and survival in patients undergoing resection of colorectal liver metastases.
Design: Retrospective study based on a prospectively updated database.
Setting: A United Kingdom tertiary referral hepatobiliary unit.
Patients: A total of 202 consecutive patients with colorectal liver metastases undergoing hepatectomy between January 1, 2000, and April 30, 2006.
Main outcome measures: Multivariable analyses were performed to correlate preoperative and operative variables with postoperative complications and to correlate complications with long-term survival after metastasectomy.
Results: Ninety-day mortality and morbidity were 2.0% and 25.7%, respectively. The preoperative systemic inflammatory response independently predicted the development of infectious complications (P = .009) and major infectious complications (P = .005) after hepatectomy, along with performance of trisectionectomy. Infectious complications were associated with poor long-term survival after metastasectomy but lost independent significance when systemic inflammatory variables were included in multivariable analyses.
Conclusions: The preoperative systemic inflammatory response independently predicts the development of infectious complications after colorectal liver metastases resection. Although infectious complications are associated with adverse long-term prognosis after hepatectomy, they lacked independent prognostic value when systemic inflammatory variables were also considered, suggesting that much of their prognostic value arises from their association with the preoperative systemic inflammatory response.