Predicting adverse events in patients undergoing hepatectomy-validation of preoperative nomogram and risk score

Much research exists on preoperative measures of postoperative mortality in the surgical treatment of liver malignancies, but little on morbidity, a more common outcome. This study aims (i) to validate the published calculations as acceptable measures of postoperative mortality and (ii) to assess the value of these published measures in predicting postoperative morbidity.

Data were collected from a prospectively managed dataset of 1059 hepatectomies performed in Louisville, Kentucky from December 1990 to April 2014. Preoperative data were used to assign scores for each of two published measures and the scores were sorted into clinically relevant groups with corresponding ordinal scores, according to the previously published literature (Dhir nomogram and Simons risk score).

After selection, 851 hepatectomies were analyzed. Both the Dhir nomogram (p = 0.0004) and Simons risk score (p = 0.0017) were acceptable predictors of postoperative mortality. In the analysis of morbidity, Dhir scores were a poor predictor of morbidity. The Simons ordinal risk score was predictive of complications (p = 0.0029), the number of complications (p = 0.0028), complication grade (p = 0.0033), and hepatic-specific complications (p = 0.0003).

The Simons ordinal risk score can be useful in assessing postoperative morbidity among hepatectomy patients.