Background: Improvements in operative technique and perioperative management have resulted in increasing numbers of elderly patients undergoing gastrectomy for gastric cancer (GC). We evaluated the accuracy of Estimation of Physiologic Ability and Surgical Stress (E-PASS) and modified (m)E-PASS scores in predicting postoperative complications in elderly patients with GC.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed short-term outcomes in 413 patients who underwent gastrectomy for GC between 2005 and 2014. They were divided into two groups: Group N comprised 341 non-elderly patients <80 years of age and Group E comprised 72 elderly patients ≥80 years of age. We calculated the E-PASS and mE-PASS scores and evaluated the correlation between the comprehensive risk score (CRS) and occurrence of postoperative complications.
Results: Morbidity rates were 25.5 % in Group N and 31.9 % in Group E. In Group N, the CRS values of both the E-PASS (P < 0.0001) and mE-PASS (P < 0.0001) scores were significantly higher in patients with complications than in those without complications. In Group E, although the E-PASS CRS was significantly higher in patients with complications than in patients without complications (P = 0.01), the mE-PASS CRS fixed (CRSf) score was not significantly correlated with the occurrence of postoperative complications (P = 0.08).
Conclusion: Both E-PASS and mE-PASS can be used to predict the occurrence of postoperative complications in GC patients undergoing gastrectomy. However, the E-PASS CRS is more accurate for elderly patients because variations in intraoperative parameters such as operation time, blood loss, and extent of skin incision have a strong influence on the occurrence of postoperative complications.
Keywords: Elderly; Physiological stress; Postoperative complications/mortality.