Complications of cytoreductive surgery plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy: An evaluation of 100 cases

To evaluate the perioperative outcomes and complications of patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis who underwent cytoreductive surgery plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC).

This retrospective study included 100 patients operated on between 2016 and 2020. Patients' characteristics, including age, comorbidities, chemotherapy history, treatment failures, cancer type, histology, platinum sensitivity, and perioperative complications, were documented. Perioperative complications were classified according to the Clavien-Dindo classification.

Median age was 58 years and median follow-up time was 16 months. Eighty-six (86%) patients had ovarian cancer; 11 (11%) experienced grade III-IV complications, and the only relevant factor was the presence of multiple metastasis (P = 0.031). Seven patients (7%) had surgical-site infection; in multivariant analyses, only ostomy formation was found as an independent risk factor for surgical-site infection (odds ratio [OR] 14.01; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36-143.52; P = 0.024). Fifteen (15%) patients experienced elevated serum creatinine after surgery and the median time to creatinine elevation was 5 days postoperatively (range 3-15 days). In multivariant analyses, only age of of 58 years or more was found as a significant factor for the elevation of serum creatinine (OR 6.96; 95% CI 1.42-32.81; P = 0.014).

Our results showed that the presence of multiple metastases increased the risk of grade III-IV complications and age of 58 years or more was the leading risk factor for renal complications. However, we could not find a relation between postoperative complications and oncologic outcomes. HIPEC seems to be a safe approach in experienced hands.