Water lavage as an adjunct to cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS-HIPEC).

Background: Water lavage (WL) during gastrointestinal cancer surgery has osmotically mediated lytic effects on tumor cells. We investigated the safety and efficacy of WL with CRS-HIPEC. Methods: This is a retrospective review, 1/2003-7/2014, of a single institution experience with CRS-HIPEC comparing patients who had WL (WL+) to those who did not (WL-). Results: Of 157 CRS-HIPECs, 16 (10.2%) were WL+. WL+ had more PCI scores >20 compared to WL- (56.3% vs 19.4%, respectively, p = 0.003); however, the completeness of cytoreduction (CC) was similar. There were no differences in hospital length of stay or post-operative complications. The average POD 1 sodium (Na) level was statistically lower in the WL+ group (133.6 +/- 2.5 vs 135.5 +/- 3.2 mEq/L, p = 0.023); however, the average Na at discharge for each group was 140 mEq/L. There were no differences in 3-year OS (3WL+:0.63 vs WL-:0.68, p = 0.97) or RFS (WL+:0.32 vs WL+:0.39, p = 0.47). A subset analysis for patients with PCI >20 showed no difference between groups. Conclusions: WL offers a low cost, safe and theoretically efficacious method of tumor cell lysis for peritoneal malignancy. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.