Perioperative Transfusion is Related to the Length of Hospital Stays in Primary Liver Cancer Patients

PURPOSE: Blood loss may be corrected with red blood cell transfusion, but may ultimately contribute to negative impacts. This study was a retrospective analysis to assess the impact of perioperative blood transfusion on hospital stay days in liver cancer patients. METHODS: We retrospectively examined data from patients with primary liver cancer who underwent curative resection. Patients were divided into perioperative blood transfusion (PBT) and non-PBT groups. Data were given as means and SDs for continuous variables and as counts and percentage for categorical variables. The correlation between blood transfusion and hospital stay days was analyzed by Fisher’s exact test. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent predictors of length of hospital stays. RESULTS: Totally 206/1031 patients (20.3%) were given perioperative transfusion. The mean length of hospital stay was 17.8 days in PBT and 13.9 days in non-PBT groups. Our multivariable logistic regression showed transfusion, total bilirubin, indirect bilirubin, and the ratio of albumin to bilirubin were all indicators of the length of hospital stay days. Perioperative transfusion was also associated with prolonged length of hospital stays (95% CI: 0.395–0.811, p = 0.002). Transfusion also affected intrinsic coagulation factors (activated partial thromboplastin time, fibrinogen, platelet), inflammatory index (neutrocyte to lymphocyte ratio, monocyte), albumin and bilirubin levels. CONCLUSION: Perioperative transfusion of blood was associated with a significantly increased length of hospital stays probably via changing intrinsic coagulation and inflammatory factors and bilirubin levels in plasma.