Comparative Performance of the Complexity Classification and the Conventional Major/Minor Classification for Predicting the Difficulty of Liver Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE

To compare performances for predicting surgical difficulty and postoperative complications.

BACKGROUND

An expert panel recently proposed a complexity classification for liver resection with 3 categories of complexity (low, medium, or high). We compared this new classification with the conventional major/minor classification.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed 469 hepatocellular carcinoma patients who underwent liver resection between 1 January 1, 2004 and June 30, 2015. We used receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis to compare the performances of both classifications for predicting perioperative outcomes.

RESULTS

Both classifications effectively differentiated subgroups of patients in terms of their intraoperative findings and short-term outcomes, including blood loss, transfusion rate, operation time, and postoperative hospital stay (all P < 0.05). The ability to predict complications was not significantly different between the major/minor classification and the complexity classification [area under the curve (AUC) 0.625 vs 0.617, respectively; P= 0.754). However, the complexity classification showed stronger correlations with blood loss (AUC 0.690 vs 0.617, respectively; P = 0.001) and operation time (AUC 0.727 vs 0.619, respectively; P < 0.001) compared with the major/minor classification. To check heterogeneity, the minor resection group was further divided into low (n = 184), medium (n = 149), and high complexity (n = 13) groups. Operation time and blood loss were significantly different among these 3 subgroups of patients.

CONCLUSIONS

The complexity classification outperformed the major/minor classification for predicting the surgical difficulty of liver resection.