Background In recent years, the clinical evidence of the controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score has increased in patients with gastrointestinal cancers. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the association between the preoperative CONUT score and outcomes in patients undergoing gastrectomy for gastric cancer (GC). Methods A systematic literature search for studies reporting the prognostic impact of the CONUT score in patients with GC was conducted. Meta-analyses of survival, postoperative outcomes, and postoperative clinico-pathological parameters were conducted. Results Five studies with 2482 patients were found to be eligible and subsequently reviewed and analyzed. The CONUT score was significantly associated with overall survival (HR 1.85, 95%CI 1.38–2.48, P <  0.001), cancer-specific survival (HR 2.56, 95%CI 1.24–5.28, P = 0.01) and recurrence/relapse-free survival (HR 1.43, 95%CI 1.12–1.82, P = 0.004). Moreover, the CONUT score was associated with the incidence of postoperative complications (OR 1.39, P = 0.003) and mortality (OR 6.97, P = 0.04), and clinico-pathological parameters (T factor [OR 1.75, P <  0.001], N factor [OR 1.51, P <  0.001], TNM stage [OR 1.73, P <  0.001], and microvascular invasion [OR 1.50, P = 0.006]), but not with tumor differentiation (OR 0.85, P = 0.13). Conclusions The preoperative CONUT score is an independent prognostic indicator of survival and postoperative complications, and is associated with clinico-pathological parameters in patients with GC. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12893-019-0593-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Machine perfusion (MP) has been used as the kidney preservation method in our center for over 10 years. The first, small (n = 74) prospective, single-blinded randomized study comparing MP and Cold Storage (CS) showed that the incidence of delayed graft function was higher after CS. There have been no reports in the literature on the effect of storage modality on longterm function of renal allografts. This paper presents an analysis of long-term results of renal transplantation in 415 patients operated on between 1994 and 1999. Of those, 227 kidneys were MP-stored prior to KTx. The control group consisted of 188 CS kidney transplants. Kidneys were not randomized to MP or to CS. Donor demographics, medical and biochemical data, cold ischemia time, HLA match and recipient data were collected. Standard triple-drug immunosuppression was administered to both groups. Mortality, graft survival and incidence of return to hemodialysis treatment were analyzed. Despite longer cold ischemia time and poorer donor hemodynamics in MP group, 5-year Kaplan-Meier graft survival was better in MP-stored than in CS-stored kidneys (68.2% vs. 54.2%, p = 0.02). Conclusion: In this nonrandomized analysis, kidney storage by MP improved graft survival and reduced the number of patients who returned to dialysis.

BackgroundThe clinical value of the controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has increased. The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematically review the association between the CONUT score and outcomes in patients undergoing hepatectomy for HCC.MethodsEmbase, Medline Ovid, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, and Google Scholar were systematically searched. Random effects meta-analyses were conducted to examine the prognostic value of the CONUT score in HCC patients.ResultsA total of five studies including 4679 patients were found to be eligible and analyzed in the meta-analysis. The CONUT score was significantly associated with overall survival (HR 1.78, 95%CI = 1.20–2.64, P = 0.004, I2 = 79%), recurrence-free survival (HR 1.34, 95%CI = 1.17–1.53, P < 0.001, I2 = 16%) and postoperative major complications (OR 1.85, 95%CI: 1.19–2.87, P = 0.006, I2 = 72%) in HCC patients. Moreover, the CONUT score was associated with the Child–Pugh classification, liver cirrhosis, ICGR15, and tumor differentiation. However, it was not associated with tumor size, tumor number, and microvascular invasion.ConclusionsThe CONUT score is an independent prognostic indicator of the prognosis and is associated with postoperative major complications and hepatic functional reserve in HCC patients.