Patterns of care among patients undergoing hepatic resection: A query of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-targeted hepatectomy database

Background The American College of Surgeons recently added liver-specific variables to the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP). We sought to use these variables to define patterns of care, as well as characterize perioperative outcomes among patients undergoing hepatic resection. Methods The American College of Surgeons-NSQIP database was queried for all patients undergoing hepatic resection between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013 (n = 2448). Liver-specific variables were summarized. Results Preoperatively, 11.3% of patients had hepatitis B or C or both, whereas 9.2% had cirrhosis. The indication for hepatic resection was benign (20.8%) or malignant (74.2%) disease. Among patients with a malignant indication, metastatic disease (47.3%) was more common than primary liver cancer (26.9%). Preoperative treatment included neoadjuvant chemotherapy (25.5%), portal vein embolization (2.1%), and intra-arterial therapy (0.9%). At surgery, most patients underwent an open hepatic resection (70.7%), whereas 21.4% and 1.1% underwent a laparoscopic or robotic procedure. The Pringle maneuver was used in 27.7% of patients. Although 6.5% of patients had a concomitant hepaticojejunostomy, 10.1% had a concurrent ablation. An operative drain was placed in half of patients (46.5%, minor resection: 42.0% versus major resection: 53.4%; P < 0.001). Among the entire cohort, bile leak (7.3%, minor resection: 4.9% versus major resection: 10.9%; P < 0.001) and liver insufficiency and/or failure (3.8%, minor resection: 1.9% versus major resection: 6.9%; P < 0.001) were relatively uncommon. A subset of patients (9.5%) did experience major liver-specific complications that required intervention (drainage of collection and/or abscess: 38.4%; stenting for biliary obstruction and/or leak: 21.2%; biloma drainage: 18.4%). Conclusions In addition to standard variables, the new inclusion of liver-specific variables provides a unique opportunity to study NSQIP outcomes and practice patterns among patients undergoing hepatic resection.