Early decrease in postoperative serum albumin predicts severe complications in patients with colorectal cancer after...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Surgical Gastroenterology
• Clinical Chemistry

Background:

• Severe postoperative complications in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients lead to longer hospital stays, increased costs, and poorer prognoses.
• Identifying reliable risk factors is crucial for managing CRC patients undergoing surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate potential risk factors, specifically serum albumin (Alb) changes, for severe postoperative complications in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.
• To assess the predictive value of the percentage change in preoperative to nadir albumin (∆Alb) for severe complications.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 193 patients with primary CRC undergoing elective laparoscopic colectomy.
• Definition of severe complications as Clavien-Dindo grade III and IV.
• Calculation of ∆Alb as (preoperative Alb - nadir Alb within POD2)/preoperative Alb × 100%.
• Utilized univariate and multivariate logistic regression and ROC curve analysis.

Main Results:

• 19.7% of patients experienced severe postoperative complications.
• ∆Alb emerged as the sole independent risk factor for severe complications (OR 1.66, p=0.003).
• The area under the ROC curve for ∆Alb was 0.916, indicating high predictive accuracy (sensitivity 0.842, specificity 0.858).

Conclusions:

• The percentage change in serum albumin (∆Alb) is a significant independent risk factor for severe complications in CRC patients.
• ∆Alb demonstrates high predictive value for identifying patients at risk of severe postoperative complications after laparoscopic surgery.