MELD-Na score is associated with postoperative complications in non-cirrhotic gastric cancer patients undergoing gastrectomy

Background

We aimed to investigate whether the MELD-Na score has a predictive value for postoperative complications in non-cirrhotic gastric cancer patients undergoing gastrectomy.

Materials and methods

The non-cirrhotic patients who were diagnosed with gastric cancer and underwent gastrectomy in our center from December 2020 to June 2022 were enrolled. MELD-Na scores of all patients were calculated within 48 h before surgery. A cut-off value was calculated for the MELD-Na score and patients were divided into two groups with a score of ≤ 10 and > 10. Postoperative 30-day complications including bleeding, ileus, wound infection, intra-abdominal abscess, evisceration, obstruction, anastomosis leakage, and pulmonary and cardiac complications were recorded. Clavien–Dindo scores were calculated. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed.

Results

A total of 159 patients were included in this study. In the patients with a score of more than 10, wound infection, postoperative bleeding, pulmonary complications, re-operation risk, and any complications were found to increase significantly. A positive correlation was found between the Clavien–Dindo score and the higher value of MELD-Na score (p = 0.046). Moreover, postoperative complications were significantly higher in patients with comorbidity and high pathologic stages (p = 0.002 and 0.044, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that comorbidity and high MELD-Na score were independent risk factors for postoperative complications.

Conclusion

In this study, it was found that a higher value of MELD-Na score was an independent predictive factor for development of postoperative complications.