Relationship Between Preoperative Nutritional Indicators and Postoperative Complications in Patients with Oesophageal Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Nutritional status is an essential factor in the occurrence of complications in patients with esophageal cancer. We sought to assess the relationship between malnutrition and complications using various nutritional assessment indicators. We conducted a comprehensive literature search of medical databases for articles published up to July 2023. The primary outcome indicator is the occurrence of complications, for which we combined 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and odds ratios (ORs) for postoperative complications and analyzed them using a random effects model. The analysis was carried out using STATA15.0 software. A total of 33 study groups from 22 publications with 5,675 subjects were included. Pooled results show that nutritional indicators are strongly correlated with the occurrence of postoperative complications (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.30–1.62). In the subgroup analyses, comprehensive indicators and the skeletal muscle index were significantly associated with complications, whereas laboratory indicators were not associated with complications (comprehensive indicators OR = 2.68, 95% CI: 1.80–4.00; skeletal muscle index OR = 2.93, 95% CI: 1.44–5.99; laboratory indicators OR = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.96–1.16). Patients with normal body mass index and hospitalized patients were more likely to develop complications. Malnutrition is strongly associated with the development of complications. Nutritional indicators and patient characteristics influenced this relationship.