The role of perioperative blood transfusion on postoperative outcomes and overall survival in patients after laparoscopic radical cystectomy.

INTRODUCTION

There are different studies in the last decades focused on general surgery patients and the impact of perioperative blood transfusion (PBT) in cancer patients' survival, and most of them have supported an independent association between PBT and worse survival in those with solid tumor malignancies. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of perioperative blood transfusion on the postoperative outcomes and survival of patients after LRC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We performed a retrospective study analyzing our series of 218 patients surgically treated with LRC form 2005 to 2012. One-way analysis of variance test was used. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan - Meier method and was compared with log - rank and the Cox regression model was used to evaluate the association of PBT with the outcomes.

RESULTS

The PBT rate of LRC series was 16%. Patients' age, comorbidities and pathological stage were not related to the PBT rate. A statistically significant relationship was found between the PBT rate and the appearance of infectious complications. Overall 3 years survival estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method was significantly worse in the transfused group: 41.38% versus 63.57% for non-transfused patients. PBT was not a significant independent predictor factor in the survival of patients after LRC. The main independent factor was the TNM classification.

CONCLUSIONS

Many studies including ours have reported a lower survival rate in patients who receive PBT after oncological surgery. There was a relationship between infectious complications and PBT. We have to make efforts to limit the use of blood products in patients surgically treated with radical cystectomy for bladder cancer.