Is radiological psoas muscle area measurement a predictor of postoperative complications after rectal resection for rectal cancer? A retrospective study.

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that sarcopenia increases the risk of postoperative complications following colorectal resection. This retrospective study assessed the postoperative complications of rectal resection associated with sarcopenia. We retrospectively analyzed 262 patients who underwent curative low anterior resection for primary rectal cancer from January 2008 to May 2020 at our institution. The patients were divided into a sarcopenia group (normalized total psoas muscle area < 6.36cm2/m2 in males and < 3.92cm2/m2 in females; N = 49) and a non-sarcopenia group (N = 213). The overall rate of postoperative complications within 30days of surgery was higher in the sarcopenia group than in the non-sarcopenia group (46.9 vs. 29.6%; P = 0.028). The rate of postoperative remote infections was higher in the sarcopenia group than in the non-sarcopenia group (12.2 vs. 2.8%; P = 0.012). Sarcopenia was found to be a predictor of remote infection by a multivariate analysis (odds ratio, 4.08; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-14.80; P = 0.033). Sarcopenia diagnosed using the psoas muscle index was found to be an independent predictive factor for postoperative remote infection after curative low anterior resection for rectal cancer.