Impact of abdominal aortic calcification on clinical outcomes following initial hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma: A retrospective cohort study

AIM: The clinical impact of abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) in patients who undergo hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unknown. METHODS: To evaluate the impact of AAC on clinical outcomes, we analyzed 203 patients who underwent hepatectomy for HCC between 2010 and 2013. RESULTS: Kaplan–Meier survival curve analysis showed significantly worse overall survival (OS) in the high AAC group than in the low AAC group. The recurrence‐free survival (RFS) was also significantly worse in the high AAC group. In the multivariate analysis, high AAC (hazard ratio [HR], 2.51; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.24–5.09; P = .01) was an independent risk factor for poor OS after hepatectomy for HCC. High AAC was also an independent risk factor for poor RFS (HR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.04–2.76; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Abdominal aortic calcification had a strong relationship with poor OS and RFS after hepatectomy for HCC. We suggest that AAC had a relationship with smoking and diabetes; therefore, AAC could reflect a surrogate for older age, worse health status, and inflammatory score.