FAILURE TO RESCUE AFTER GASTRECTOMY: A NEW INDICATOR OF SURGICAL QUALITY

The main treatment modality for gastric cancer is surgical resection with lymphadenectomy. Despite advances in perioperative care, major surgical complications can occur in up to 20% of cases. To determine the quality of surgical care employed, a new indicator called failure to rescue (FTR) was proposed, which assesses the percentage of patients who die after complications occur.

To assess the rate of FTR after gastrectomy and factors associated with its occurrence.

Patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy with curative intent were retrospectively evaluated. According to the occurrence of postoperative complications, patients were divided into FTR group (grade V complications) and rescued group (grade III/IV complications).

Among the 731 patients, 114 had major complications. Of these patients, 76 (66.7%) were successfully treated for the complication (rescued group), while 38 (33.3%) died (FTR group). Patients in the FTR group were older (p=0.008; p<0.05), had lower levels of hemoglobin (p=0.021; p<0.05) and albumin (p=0.002; p<0.05), and a higher frequency of ASA III/IV (p=0.033; p<0.05). There were no differences between the groups regarding surgical and pathological characteristics. Clinical complications had a higher mortality rate (40.0% vs 30.4%), with pulmonary complications (50.2%) and infections (46.2%) being the most lethal. Patients with major complications grade III/IV had worse survival than those without complications.

The FTR rate was 33.3%. Advanced age, worse performance, and nutritional parameters were associated with FTR.