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Published on: September 27, 2024
The effect of preoperative blood transfusion on morbidity and survival in colorectal malignancy
Tarik Zafer Nursal1, Erhan Hamaloğlu
1Department of General Surgery, Başkent University Adana Teaching and Research Center, Adana, Turkey. tznursal@baskent-adn.edu.tr
Background/Aims:
It is believed that blood transfusions adversely affect colorectal cancer surgery. However, intra- and postoperative blood transfusions represent urgent interventions, and immeasurable confounding factors may affect the shortand long-term outcome. Therefore, we compared colorectal cancer patients who had received preoperative blood transfusion with patients who did not receive transfusions with regard to postoperative complications and long-term outcome.
Methods:
The records of 333 patients who were operated for colorectal malignancy between 1980 and 1995 were evaluated.
Results:
Sixty-one patients (18.3%) received preoperative blood transfusions. Wound infection rate was higher (14.2% vs 1.9%) in the no-transfusion group. Disease-free survival was not different between the groups (p=0.134). Cumulative survival was adversely affected in the preoperative transfusion group (p=0.012). However, preoperative blood transfusion did not emerge to be an independent factor for wound infection or for death on follow-up when the confounding factors were corrected.
Conclusion:
Preoperative transfusion during surgery for colorectal malignancy does not result in an increase in postoperative complications, long-term failure or death rates.
