Risk factors for postoperative portal vein thrombosis in patients with hepatitis B liver cancer and its impact on mortality—a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: The treatment of portal thrombosis is very difficult, which can seriously affect the prognosis of the patients, and thus, preventing postoperative portal thrombosis in patients with hepatitis B liver cancer is crucial. Identifying the risk factors in these patients is key to preventing postoperative portal vein thrombosis. However, relevant research is currently lacking. The present study was to study the risk factors for postoperative portal vein thrombosis in patients with hepatitis B liver cancer and its impact on mortality. METHODS: We retrospectively included 663 patients with hepatitis B liver cancer admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University and Shenzhen University General Hospital from January 2017 to December 2021. The patients were divided into a portal thrombosis group (n=54) and a control group (n=609) according to whether they had portal thrombosis after surgery. The clinical characteristics including alcoholism, D-dimer, surgery method and tumor diameter of the two groups were compared, and the treatment and mortality of the patients in the portal thrombosis group were analyzed. RESULTS: The incidence of portal vein thrombosis in patients with hepatitis B liver cancer was 8.14% (54/663). The area under the Receiver operator characteristics curve for the diagnostic value of D-dimer for postoperative portal vein thrombosis in patients with hepatitis B liver cancer was 0.716 (95% CI: 0.650–0.781, P=0.000). Alcoholism, D-dimer >8.74 mg/L, open surgery, and a maximum tumor diameter >5 cm were identified as risk factors for portal vein thrombosis after surgery in patients with hepatitis B hepatitis cancer [odds ratio: 2.991 (95% CI: 1.234–7.249), P=0.015; odds ratio: 3.269 (95% CI: 1.683–6.349), P=0.000; odds ratio: 6.726 (95% CI: 3.419–13.232), P=0.000; odds ratio: 2.443 (95% CI: 1.344–4.442), P=0.003]. Patients with Grade I or II grade Yerdel (96.30%) were cured after treatment, while two patients with III grade (3.70%) died after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of portal vein thrombosis after surgery in patients with hepatitis B liver cancer is high. Intervention against risk factors may be beneficial to improve the prognosis of patients with hepatitis B liver cancer.