Body fat accumulation and postoperative morbidity in colorectal-cancer surgery

Summary BACKGROUND: Obesity is reported to increase the risk of colorectal cancer. We investigated whether it was associated with mortality or morbidity after colorectal-cancer surgery. METHODS: 70 colorectal-cancer patients who underwent elective surgery were investigated in this study. The intra-abdominal fat (IAF) and subcutaneous fat (SCF) areas were quantified by CT scan preoperatively. We investigated whether body mass index (BMI), IAF, or SCF were associated with postoperative mortality or morbidity. RESULTS: The mortality rate was 0%. 11 (16%) of 70 patients had medical complications (pneumonia, 9; arrhythmia, 2) and 16 (23%) had surgery-related complications (wound infection, 12; anastomotic leakage, 5) postoperatively. There was no significant difference in the postoperative medical or surgery-related morbidity rate between the IAF + (males, ≥160 cm 2 ; females, ≥120 cm 2 ) and IAF – groups. The surgery-related morbidity rate was significantly higher in the SCF + group (male, ≥180 cm 2 ; female, ≥250 cm 2 ) than in the SCF – group and multilogistic regression analysis confirmed that diabetes mellitus and SCF were significant for surgery-related morbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Subcutaneous fat accumulation is significantly associated with postoperative surgery-related morbidity after colorectal-cancer surgery.