Risk Factors for Severe Complications in Ovarian Cancer Surgery

Backround: Due to extensive surgical intervention for macroscopic complete cytoreduction in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients, severe complications in the postoperative course are possible.

A total of 345 EOC patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery were retrospectively evaluated regarding risk factors for an unfavorable postoperative course. Possible pre-, intra- and postoperative risk factors were statistically analyzed performing multivariate ordinal logistic regression.

A total of 345 EOC patients underwent cytoreductive surgery. There were no complications in 114 patients, mild complications in 114 patients and severe complications in 117 patients. The risk factor evaluation identified age (p=0.049), smoking (p=0.032) and duration of surgery (p<0.0001) as significant factors for severe postoperative morbidity.

In EOC patients age, smoking and the duration of surgery have significant impact on the postoperative course. Only the duration of surgery can be positively influenced by a well-trained EOC team.