title: Factors affecting morbidity and mortality in biliary tract surgery.
abstract: Thirty-six clinical and laboratory parameters in 770 consecutive patients undergoing biliary tract surgery over a 3 year period were analyzed in an effort to define the patients at greatest risk. Twelve parameters had a significant correlation with hospital mortality, while multivariate analysis revealed that septic shock, malignant obstruction, serum albumin less than 3.0 gm%, history of hypertension, and plasma urea nitrogen greater than 20 mg% had an independent significance in predicting postoperative mortality. The presence of more than 2 of these risk factors identified a group of patients with an 18% mortality rate. It is for this group of patients that adequate pre-operative preparation such as fluid resuscitation, prophylactic antibiotics, and nutritional support are essential. The controversial preoperative biliary drainage might be only indicated in this group of patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, National Yang-Ming Medical College, Republic of China.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: F K
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: P'eng
authors.forename: W Y
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lui
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001662:Biliary Tract Surgical Procedures / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome