This study aimed to explore the relationship between HGS and postoperative complications of PLC. Low HGS, laparotomy and intraoperative blood loss (≥ 200 ml) were significant risk factors for complications after surgery. The results also revealed a certain correlation between HGS and other nutrition assessment tools. This clinical study is the first to assess the relationship between HGS and short-term surgical outcomes after hepatic resection in patients with PLC.
HGS is an indicator of overall muscle strength and reflects physical function (11). Few studies have focused on the relationship between preoperative HGS and prognosis in PLC, while a number of works have investigated gastric (24), pancreatic (25) and esophageal cancer (14). Sato et al. (14) reported that HGS is a predictor of postoperative complications, especially postoperative pneumonia in men aged 70 years or older; however, no correlation was found in patients younger than 70. According to Sato et al. (26), preoperative HGS rather than lean body mass is a risk factor for postoperative complications. Therefore, HGS has become a popular indicator in basic assessment for clinical applications.
Sarcopenia is defined by the new edition of European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People as a decline in gait speed, HGS and muscle mass (27). Many studies have focused on the association between sarcopenia and short- (18) and long-term prognosis after hepatectomy in patients with liver cancer. Harimoto N et al.(18,19) reported that sarcopenia is one of the prognostic factor for overall and recurrence-free survival in patients following partial hepatectomy. A French study showed that the difference in postoperative mortality and morbidity rates between sarcopenic and nonsarcopenic groups was insignificant (28), but complications were not analysed as key outcome variables in this study. Findings from Europe and America reached a slightly different conclusion. A study conducted by Valero et al. (29) reported that severe complications (Clavien grade ≥ 3) occur only in patients with sarcopenia. The differences can be explained by variations in race, heterogeneous cohorts and assessment methods. In summary, sarcopenia predicts a poor outcome after hepatectomy. Unfortunately, sarcopenia was not assessed in our study. Several components of sarcopenia such as muscle quantity or gait speed were not included in our study. However, sarcopenia is rarely used in clinical practice due to factors, such as economic and operational complexities.
In this study, the incidence of grade 2 or higher complications was 25.2%, which is similar to that in a previous research (29%) (28). To our knowledge, surgical complications are poor prognostic factors after surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (18). Yang et al. (30) showed that the short-term postoperative complications of HCC affect the overall postoperative and recurrence-free survival. Medical teams always strive to reduce the incidence of complications. In addition, surgical blood loss (≥ 200 ml) was identified as an independent risk factor for complications. Intraoperative bleeding was used to predict treatment outcomes (31), mortality and recurrence (32).
Low HGS was significantly associated with low weight, low BMI, low albumin, high NRS-2002 and high PG-SGA score in baseline analysis. Further analysis found a significant correlation between HGS and nutritional assessment tools, such as PG-SGA (r = − 0.390, P = 0.025) in women. Previous studies debated whether HGS reflects nutritional status (33). These results are consistent with reports among elderly hospitalised patients. Hence, patients with high HGS have a low risk of malnutrition and nutritional risk (34). Furthermore, changes in HGS can independently predict changes in PG-SGA scores over a period of time (12).
In the final multivariate analysis, other nutritional assessment methods such as PG-SGA, NRS-2002, ALB/ PALB and BMI were no longer meaningful in predicting postoperative complications. The results are inconsistent with those of a previous research (5), where PG-SGA scores ≥ 4 were considered as significant risk factors for postoperative complications. The following points may explain the differences. Firstly, malnutrition and low HGS do not entirely appear simultaneously (33). Further research is needed to determine which comes first. Secondly, existing nutritional assessment tools may lack sensitivity to subtle changes in liver cancer before surgery. Thirdly, in the present study, the enhanced recovery protocol after surgery was applied, which possibly improve the patients’ postoperative condition and eliminate the consequences of malnutrition. Nevertheless, muscle function responds to early nutritional deprivation and recovery (10). In the present work, we showed that HGS is a simple tool that can be used to monitor nutritional status. HGS may detect body changes earlier than current anthropometric-based screening tools.
Clinical practice guidelines recommend that patients with liver disease should be evaluated for malnutrition and sarcopenia before surgery. With proper sarcopenia treatment, the body’s protein status and clinical outcomes can be improved (35). Furthermore, improving muscle condition with nutritional supplements and physical exercise can affect postoperative outcomes (36).
One advantage of this study is that HGS and nutrition were assessed by the same trained dietitian, thereby avoiding differences between evaluators. In addition, various preoperative nutritional assessment tools were used to comprehensively assess the patients’ overall preoperative status. Nevertheless, this study has some limitations. Firstly, long-term data and survival information were not available. We will continue to track the health status of these patients over time. Secondly, the sample size was too small to discuss the optimal truncation value by gender and age. To identify patients at risk, researchers must verify reliable cut-off values in the future. Thirdly, the study was only conducted in one centre and thus could not represent other regions or races. Additional cohort studies are needed to analyse the relationship between HGS and long-term outcomes.