The Impact of Sarcopenia in Patients with Peritoneal Surface Disease

Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy is increasingly performed in patients with advanced cancer in the abdomen. This treatment prolongs survival for some patients but is known to have a substantial rate of complications. Choosing patients for this procedure can be difficult, and no clear guidelines exist. Muscle mass is a general measure of a patient’s wellness, meaning that patients with low muscle mass for their body weight tend to have more complications from treatment and overall do worse. We evaluated muscle mass prior to surgery in our Cytoreductive surgery/hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy population to assess how many patients have low muscle mass and the impact on outcomes, such as length of hospital stay, complications and survival. We find that about 25% of our patient population has low muscle mass, and low muscle mass is associated with a higher burden of cancer and shorter survival. We were able to evaluate muscle mass in a small number of patients after surgery, expecting to find decreased muscle mass in all the patients after a complex operation and long recovery. In fact, none of the patients had low muscle mass, including those who were low prior to surgery.