Background: Total cholesterol (TC) can reflect the degree of liver damage in patients with chronic hepatitis B or C; its role in evaluating liver functional reserve and predicting postoperative complications remains unknown.
Methods: The prospectively collected data of 996 consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis B or C undergoing partial hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma in a tertiary institution were retrospectively reviewed. The relationship between preoperative TC and postoperative liver insufficiency, morbidity and mortality were analyzed.
Results: TC showed significant correlation with postoperative complications on receiver operating characteristic curves, with area under the curve of 0.81 (P < .001), 0.79 (P < .001), and 0.85 (P < .001) for postoperative liver insufficiency, morbidity, and mortality, respectively. Using the calculated cutoff at 2.80 mmol/L, Patients with low TC had worse preoperative liver functional reserve and suffered from more postoperative complications when compared with patients with normal TC (≥2.8 mmol/L). Multivariate analysis revealed that low preoperative TC was more powerful in predicting poor postoperative outcomes than Child-Pugh's classification, indocyanine green (ICG) retention test, and Mayo End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. It was an independent risk factor for postoperative morbidity (odds ratio [OR], 4.87; P < .001) and mortality (OR, 14.60; P < .001).
Conclusion: Among patients with chronic virus B or C hepatitis receiving partial hepatectomy, a low TC (<2.8 mmol/L) predicted poor postoperative outcomes. It was better than Child-Pugh's classification, ICG, and MELD score in the prediction of postoperative complications, and was useful in the preoperative evaluation of liver functional reserve.
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