Short-term outcomes of perioperative glucocorticoid administration in patients undergoing liver surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate whether glucocorticoid might be beneficial after hepatectomy. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: We included studies assessing the efficacy of perioperative glucocorticoid administration in patients undergoing liver surgery. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Four data bases were retrieved for all randomised controlled trials. We considered postoperative complications, hospital stay and postoperative chemistry evaluations as outcomes. Pooled effects of dichotomic variables were expressed as relative risk (RR) with a 95% CI. The mean difference was used for continuous variables and an inverse variance statistical method was adopted. RESULTS: Fourteen studies with 1205 patients were included. Lower risk of overall complications was associated with glucocorticoid (RR, 0.77; 95% CI 0.64 to 0.92), while no difference was found in hospital stay (RR, 0.02; 95% CI −0.47 to 0.51). There were also improvements in postoperative chemistry evaluations including interleukin 6 on day 1 and 3, C reactive protein on day 1, 2 and 3, international normalised ratio on day 2, total bilirubin on day 1, 2, 3 and 5, albumin on day 1. CONCLUSION: Current evidence indicated that perioperative glucocorticoid administration for patients undergoing hepatectomy reduced the risk of overall complications with inhibited postoperative inflammatory response and improved postoperative liver function. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42022307533.