Safety of Use of a Sheet-Type Adhesion Barrier (Interceed^®) During Liver Surgery

Adhesion barriers are increasingly used in hepatobiliary surgery. However, there has been no solid evidence yet in support of their safety.

Incidences of global postoperative morbidities and major abdominal morbidities were compared between 101 consecutive patients who received a sheet-type adhesion barrier (Interceed^®) and 134 patients who did not receive any adhesion barriers during hepatectomy. Propensity score (PS) adjustment was used to account for potential bias to receive Interceed.

In the PS-adjusted population, the incidences of both global postoperative morbidities and major abdominal morbidities showed no significant difference between the Interceed group and the control group (17.9% vs. 17.6%; P = 0.948 and 7.8% vs. 9.1%; P = 0.813, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that age + 10 years (odds ratio [OR], 1.70; 95% CI, 1.15-2.50; P = 0.007), estimated blood loss + 100 mL (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.01-1.09, P = 0.009), and laparoscopic approach (OR, 0.10; 95% CI, 0.01-0.75; P = 0.026) were independent predictors for global postoperative morbidities and operation time + 1 h (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.23-1.96; P < 0.001) was a risk factor for major abdominal morbidity, while no specific association between the use of Interceed and the risk of postoperative morbidity was observed.

Use of Interceed does not increase the risk of postoperative morbidities after hepatectomy.