Background: Whether perioperative packed red blood cell (pRBC) transfusion is associated with inferior long-term outcomes after stomach cancer surgery remains controversial. Methods: This research used a retrospective cohort study. Patients with stage I~III stomach cancer undergoing tumor resection were collected at a tertiary medical center. Patient characteristics, surgical features and pathologic findings were gathered from an electronic medical chart review. The associations of perioperative pRBC transfusion with postoperative disease-free and overall survivals were evaluated using Cox regression analysis with an inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW). Restricted cubic spline functions were employed to characterize dose-response relationships between the amount of transfusion and cancer outcomes after surgery. Results: Among the 569 patients, 160 (28.1%) received perioperative pRBC transfusion. Perioperative transfusion was associated with worse disease-free survival (IPTW adjusted HR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.18–1.71, p < 0.001) and overall survival (IPTW adjusted HR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.05–1.55, p = 0.014). A non-linear dose-response relationship was noted between the amount of transfusions and worse disease-free or overall survival. Conclusions: Perioperative pRBC transfusion was associated with worse disease-free and overall survival after stomach cancer surgery, and strategies aiming to minimize perioperative transfusion exposure should be further considered to reduce the potential risk.

Background: Whether epidural anesthesia and analgesia (EA) improves long-term outcomes after pancreatic cancer surgery remains controversial. We conducted this retrospective cohort study to investigate the influence of EA on cancer recurrence and overall survival after surgery for pancreatic cancer. Methods: We conducted an electronic medical chart review of patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent curative resection at our hospital from 2008 to 2017 and were followed up until December 2019. Patient demographics, anesthetic and surgical characteristics, and pathologic features were also collected. The effects of EA on postoperative cancer recurrence and overall survival were evaluated using proportional hazards regression models with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) based on propensity scores to balance unequal distributions of observed covariates. For sensitivity analysis, multivariable regression modeling and quintile-stratified propensity adjustments were also used. Results: Among the 252 included patients, the median follow-up period was 15.9 months (interquartile range 6.8-28.2 months), and 88 (35%) received EA after pancreatic cancer surgery. EA was not associated with greater cancer recurrence (IPTW adjusted HR: 0.98; 95% CI, 0.78%-1.24%; p = 0.87) or all-cause mortality (IPTW adjusted HR: 1.02; 95% CI, 0.82%-1.27%; p = 0.85) after pancreatic cancer resection. In sensitivity analysis, both the multivariable and stratified Cox regression analyses failed to demonstrate significant effects of EA on cancer recurrence and survival after surgery. Conclusion: There were no significant associations between EA and cancer recurrence and overall survival after curative surgery for pancreatic cancer. Prospective studies should be considered to elucidate the relationship between EA and cancer outcomes after pancreatic cancer surgery.

Background There is no consensus regarding the superiority of volatile or total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) in reducing the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) after lung resection surgery (LRS). Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of TIVA and volatile anesthesia on the incidence of PPCs in patients who underwent LRS. We hypothesized that TIVA is associated with a lower incidence of PPCs than volatile anesthesia.Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent LRS at Taipei Veterans General Hospital between January 2016 and December 2020. The patients’ charts were reviewed and data on patient characteristics, perioperative features, and postoperative outcomes were extracted and analyzed. The patients were categorized into TIVA and volatile anesthesia groups and their clinical data were compared. Propensity score matching was performed to reduce potential selection bias. The primary outcome was the difference between the incidence of PPCs in the volatile anesthesia and TIVA groups, whereas the secondary outcomes were the differences in the incidences of other postoperative events, such as length of hospital stay (LOS) and postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), between the two groups.Results A total of 396 patients each were included in the TIVA and volatile anesthesia groups. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of PPCs between the volatile anesthetic and TIVA groups. The TIVA group had a shorter LOS (p < 0.001) and a lower incidence of PONV than the volatile anesthesia group (4.5% in the TIVA group vs. 8.8% in the volatile anesthesia group; p = 0.016). However, there were no significant differences in reintubation, 30-day readmission, and reoperation rates between the two groups.Conclusions There is no significant difference between the incidence of PPCs in patients who underwent LRS under TIVA and that in patients who underwent LRS under volatile anesthesia. However, TIVA may be a better choice for maintenance of anesthesia in patients undergoing LRS.