Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 as a predictor of postoperative complications, two-year mortality, duration of hospital stay, and readmission within 30 days in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

The Adult Comorbidity Evaluation (ACE)-27 is a validated scoring system for comorbid conditions. We have evaluated the correlation between it and the duration of hospital stay, readmission within 30 days, complications, and two-year survival in patients having primary surgical treatment for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck. We studied patients with SCC who had selective neck dissection, resection of the tumour, and reconstruction between 2007 and 2013. Patients who had palliative procedures were excluded. We studied the casenotes of 231 patients and recorded the following outcome measures: TNM staging, ACE-27 score, number of days spent in hospital, readmission within 30 days, complications, and mortality at two years.The relation between the ACE-27 score and duration of hospital stay was significant (p=0.000001). The relations between complications and ACE-27 score, and complications and tumour stage, were also significant (p<0.002, and p<0.008, respectively). Two year mortality is significantly related to stage of tumour and ACE-27 score (p=0.001 and p=0.000246 respectively). We conclude that ACE-27 is a validated, relevant, scoring system for patients being operated on for SCC of the head and neck. It is a better prognostic indicator of two-year mortality than TNM stage, and is a good reflection of complications. We therefore suggest that it is used when discussing surgical outcomes, taking consent from newly-diagnosed patients, and when calculating the costs of head and neck oncological surgery.