Relationship between postoperative complications of esophageal cancer surgery and season: a retrospective study

Esophageal cancer in China accounts for nearly half of the global esophageal cancer cases. The relationship between the occurrence of postoperative complications of esophageal cancer surgery and seasonal changes is not clear. Our purpose is to clarify the relationship between postoperative complications of esophageal cancer and season, so as to reduce the incidence of complications.

We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients undergoing esophageal cancer surgery in our hospital between January 2013 and December 2014. Patients were divided into the summer group (March-August) and the non-summer group (September-February) according to the seasonal climate. Pulmonary, cardiac, and other complications were recorded. Differences in postoperative complications were compared between the two groups by the chi-squared test.

In the 251 patients enrolled, the total postoperative complication rate was 37.8%. The occurrence of incision complications in the summer group was significantly higher than that in the non-summer group (10.1% vs. 3.5%, P=0.044). Pulmonary and cardiac complications in summer group were significantly rarer than those in the non-summer group (16.7% vs. 27.4%, P=0.039; and 8.0% vs. 16.8%, P=0.032, respectively).

During the warm months of the year, clinicians should focus on preventing postoperative incision complications, and they should focus on preventing pulmonary and cardiac complications during the cold months.