Background: Several studies have reported that preoperative sarcopenia negatively impacts postoperative outcomes. Meanwhile, changes in skeletal muscle mass during the acute phase after surgery and their association with postoperative complications are unknown.
Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between changes in skeletal muscle mass and postoperative complications after major hepatectomy with extrahepatic bile duct resection.
Methods: This study included 254 patients who underwent major hepatectomies with extrahepatic bile duct resections. Total psoas muscle area (TPA) was measured using abdominal computed tomography images obtained before and 1 week after surgery. The percent change in TPA after surgery was calculated. Patients were stratified by sex-specific tertiles according to the extent of muscle mass change by percentage. Surgery-related muscle loss (SML) was defined as the lowest tertile of percent change in TPA.
Results: Male patients with a percent change of TPA lower than -5.0 % (n = 54) and female patients with that lower than -2.6 % (n = 31) were included in the lowest tertile and were categorized into a group with SML. The incidence rates of major complications, pancreatic fistula, infectious complications, and mortality were all significantly higher in the group with SML than in the group without SML. By multivariate analyses, SML was identified as an independent factor associated with major complications (odds ratio 3.21; 95 % confidential interval 1.82-5.76, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: SML is significantly associated with postoperative morbidity and mortality in patients who underwent major hepatectomies with extrahepatic bile duct resections.