Background and objectives: Perioperative red blood cell transfusions (PBT) may be associated with worse survival. In this study of adults undergoing cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS-HIPEC), we investigated whether there was an association between PBT and survival.
Materials and methods: A retrospective study of adults who had undergone CRS-HIPEC for appendiceal carcinomatosis was conducted. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify factors associated with survival.
Results: Of the 270 patients analysed, 170 (63%) received PBT. A PBT was not significantly associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR = 1·03; 95% CI: 0·7-1·51; P = 0·879) or overall survival (OS) (HR = 0·65; 95% CI: 0·38-1·11; P = 0·116). Higher number of PBT units (≥5) was not associated with worse RFS (P = 0·077) or OS (P = 0·079). Independent predictors of poor survival included as follows: estimated blood loss and high tumour grade for RFS (both P < 0·001), and male gender (P = 0·029) and high tumour grade (P < 0·001) for OS. Higher preoperative haemoglobin was independently associated with better RFS (P = 0·011) and OS (P = 0·006).
Conclusions: In this retrospective study of adults who had undergone CRS-HIPEC for appendiceal carcinomatosis, PBT was not significantly associated with survival.
Keywords: adults; outcomes; perioperative blood transfusion.
© 2017 International Society of Blood Transfusion.