Results of the use of an integrated risk scale for postoperative complications in patients with colorectal cancer
Authors: Shabunin A. V. , Bagatelia Z. A. , Grekov D. N. , Kulushev V. M. , Kreneva E. L. , Lebedko M. S. , Sokolov N. Yu. , Titov K. S. , Podzolkova N. M. 
Published: June 2024

Inroduction. Polymorbidity significantly increases the risk of complications in the early postoperative period, especially in patients with colorectal cancer, taking into account the initial nutritional status disorder. At present, several scales of postoperative complications risk assessment (POSSUM, RCRI, MUST) are used, but they do not fully meet the needs of modern oncosurgery, so we consider it necessary to compare their effectiveness and propose a new integrated scale.

Aim. To establish the most significant factors influencing the outcome of surgical treatment and length of hospitalization in comorbid patients with colon cancer with the development of a surgical risk assessment scale that is most adapted for this group of patients.

Materials and methods. We analyzed the data of hospital charts of patients undergo surgery for colorectal cancer in the oncoproctologic department of the S. P. Botkin State Clinical Hospital of the Moscow Healthcare Department in the period from 2019 to 2022. Inclusion criteria: histologically verified colorectal adenocarcinoma; colorectal cancer in stage cT4, cN0, cM0 or cT1–4, cN1–2, cM0; presence of one or more concomitant diseases in the patient. Exclusion criteria: presence of distant metastases of colorectal cancer; absence of confirmed comorbidities; early forms of colorectal cancer (cT1–2, cN0). All patients were assessed for risk of perioperative complications using ASA, POSSUM, MUST, and RCRI scales. The study endpoints were number of days in intensive care, number of days of hospitalization, and 30-day mortality. An Excel database with POSSUM, RCRI, and MUST scale calculators was created for the study. The evaluation of parameters influencing the outcome of hospitalization was performed using ROC analysis and correlation analysis using Pearson’s criterion. To identify the most sensitive parameters affecting the outcome of hospitalization, commonly used calculators were studied in detail.

Results. 200 patient records were analyzed. The results of treatment were compared with the data obtained using the postoperative risk scales POSSUM, MUST, RCRI. A comparative analysis of the scales presented above with our proposed integral scale of postoperative complications risk assessment was carried out. It was found that the parameters of our proposed integral scale showed the highest sensitivity (Se >70 %) and specificity (Sp >70 %) to the risk of postoperative complications. Our proposed integral scale showed a moderate correlation with the age of patients (r = 0.475, p = 0.01) and preoperative weight loss (r = 0.592, p = 0.01), as well as a high correlation with POSSUM (r = 0.649, p = 0.01; r = 0.852, p = 0.01) and MUST (r = 0.655, p = 0.01).

Conclusion. The developed scale for assessment of surgical risk in comorbid patients with colorectal cancer showed a higher correlation with the outcome of surgical treatment than similar known scales, which indicates its effectiveness and possibility of application in clinical practice after its validation in prospective studies.