Impact of visceral obesity on the short-term outcomes after radical operation for mid-low rectal cancers / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the effect of visceral obesity on the short-term outcomes after radical operation for mid-low rectal cancers. Methods: We conducted a prospective study on patients who underwent selective rectal cancer resection at The Second Affili-ated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University between April 2017 and October 2018. The cutoff visceral fat area (VFA) for visceral obe-sity was≥134.6 cm2 for men and≥91.1 cm2 for women. Results: A total of 127 patients were included in the study, of whom 64 were diagnosed as having visceral obesity and 63 as having non-visceral obesity. The patients with visceral obesity had a higher body mass index (BMI) (P<0.001) than those without visceral obesity. The proportions of female patients and those who had a laparoscopy-assist-ed surgery were higher in the visceral obesity group than in the non-visceral obesity group. We found no significant differences in age, albumin level, hemoglobin count, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) stage, Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS) 2002 score, Charlson comorbidity index, tumor location, TNM stage, lymphatic invasion, and laparoscopy-assisted surgery between the two groups. The postoperative complication rate was significantly higher in the visceral obesity group than in the non-visceral obesity group (35.9% vs . 19% , P=0.033). A multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that visceral obesity [odds ratio (OR)=2.732, P=0.019] and NRS 2002 scores of≥3 (OR=2.574, P=0.042) were independent risk factors for postoperative complications. Conclusions:Visceral obesity was an independent risk factor for complications after surgery for mid-low rectal cancers.