Risk factors for perineal wound infection after abdominoperineal resection of advanced lower rectal cancer

PURPOSE: Abdominoperineal resection (APR) of advanced lower rectal cancer carries a high incidence of perineal wound infection. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate risk factors for perineal wound infection after APR. METHODS: The study group comprised 154 patients who underwent APR for advanced lower rectal cancer in our department from January 1990 through December 2012. The following 15 variables were studied as potential risk factors for perineal wound infection: sex, age, body-mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists score, diabetes mellitus, preoperative albumin level, preoperative hemoglobin level, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy(NCRT), surgical procedure (open surgery vs. laparoscopic surgery), operation time, bleeding volume, intraoperative transfusion, tumor diameter, invasion depth, and histopathological stage. RESULTS: Among the 154 patients, 30 (19%) had perineal wound infection. Univariate analysis showed that a hemoglobin level of ≤11 g/dL (p = 0.001) and NCRT (p = 0.001) were significantly related to perineal wound infection. On multivariate analysis including the preoperative albumin level (≤3.5 g/dL) in addition to the above 2 variables, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) was the only independent risk factor for perineal wound infection. Perineal wound infection developed in 31% of patients who received NCRT, as compared with 10% of patients who did not receive NCRT. The relative risk of perineal infection in the former group was 4.092 as compared with the latter group (p = 0.0002). CONCLUSIONS: NCRT is a risk factor for perineal wound infection after APR in patients with advanced lower rectal cancer.