The association between preoperative physical functioning and short-term postoperative outcomes: a cohort study of patients undergoing elective hepatic resection.

BACKGROUND: This study evaluated the association between practical performance-based indices of preoperative physical functioning and short-term postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing hepatic resection. METHOD: Preoperative characteristics and results of practical performance-based tests of physical functioning were analyzed concerning the effect on postoperative outcomes (recovery of physical functioning, non-surgical complications, and length of hospital stay) using univariable and multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Perioperative data of 96 patients showed that besides the conventional risk-factors (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade III and BMI), lower absolute steep ramp test performance (in watts; OR 0.992), and lower perceived level of functional capacity to perform activities of daily living (ADL) on Duke activity status index (in metabolic equivalent of task (MET); OR 0.806) and lower score on the veterans-specific activity questionnaire (in MET, OR 0.875) were associated with delayed recovery of physical functioning. Furthermore, more comorbidities, worse functional mobility, and lower levels of perceived functional capacity to perform ADL were associated with non-surgical complications and length of hospital stay. CONCLUSION: Adequate preoperative performance and perceived level of functional capacity to perform ADL appear to be of importance to identify individual patients that are at risk of a complicated postoperative course.

Implementation and first results of a mandatory, nationwide audit on liver surgery.

BACKGROUND: The Dutch Hepato Biliary Audit (DHBA) was initiated in 2013 to assess the national quality of liver surgery. This study aimed to describe the initiation and implementation of this audit along with an overview of the results and future perspectives. METHODS: Registry of patients undergoing liver surgery for all primary and secondary liver tumors in the DHBA is mandatory. Weekly, benchmarked information on process and outcome measures is reported to surgical teams. In this study, the first results of patients with colorectal liver metastases were presented, including results of data verification. RESULTS: Between 2014 and 2017, 6241 procedures were registered, including 4261 (68%) resections for colorectal liver metastases. For minor- and major liver resections for colorectal liver metastases, the median [interquartile range] hospital stay was 6 [4-8] and 8 [6-12] days, respectively. A postoperative complicated course (complication leading to >14 days of hospital stay, reintervention or death) occurred in 26% and 43% and the 30-day/in-hospital mortality was 1% and 4%, respectively. The completeness of data was 97%. In 3.6% of patients, a complicated postoperative course was erroneously omitted. CONCLUSION: Nationwide implementation of the DHBA has been successful. This was the first step in creating a complete evaluation of the quality of liver surgery.