Adverse impact of postoperative intra-abdominal infectious complications on cancer recurrence-related survival after curative gastric cancer surgery.

Background:This study aimed to evaluate the impact of postoperative intra-abdominal infectious complications (PICs) on survival after surgery for gastric cancer.Methods:A total of 152 patients who underwent curative gastrectomy for gastric cancer were included. The effect of clinicopathological features and PICs on recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were investigated.Results:The median age was 67 years. The pathological stage was stage I (61), II (40), and III (51). Thirty-two patients (21.1%) had PICs: 9, pancreatic fistula; 14, anastomotic leakage; and 17, intra-abdominal abscess. The five-year RFS and OS rates were significantly lower in patients with PICs than in those without PICs (63.4 vs. 85.6%; p < 0.01 and 56.4 vs. 80.3%; p < 0.01, respectively). In multivariate analysis, intraoperative blood loss was an independent prognostic factor for PICs.Conclusions:Patients with PICs had worse clinical outcomes. Reducing intraoperative bleeding may improve the prognosis of gastric cancer