The impact of type and number of bowel resections on anastomotic leakage risk in advanced ovarian cancer surgery

Objective To identify risk factors for anastomotic leakage (AL) in patients undergoing primary advanced ovarian cancer surgery and to evaluate the prognostic implication of AL on overall survival in these patients. Methods We analyzed our institutional database for primary EOC and included all consecutive patients treated by debulking surgery including any type of full circumferential bowel resection beyond appendectomy between 1999 and 2015. We performed logistic regression models to identify risk factors for AL and log-rank tests and Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate the association between AL and survival. Results AL occurred in 36/800 (4.5%; 95% confidence interval [3%–6%]) of all patients with advanced ovarian cancer and 36/518 (6.9% [5%–9%]) patients undergoing bowel resection during debulking surgery. One hundred fifty-six (30.1%) patients had multiple bowel resections. In these patients, AL rate per patient was only slightly higher (9.0% [5%–13%]) than in patients with rectosigmoid resection only (6.9% [4%–10%]), despite the higher number of anastomosis. No independent predictive factors for AL were identified. AL was independently associated with shortened overall survival (HR 1.9 [1.2–3.4], p = 0.01). Conclusion In the present study, no predictive pre- and/or intraoperative risk factors for AL were identified. AL rate was mainly influenced by rectosigmoid resection and only marginally increased by additional bowel resections.