Does Preoperative Anemia Affect Complications after Thoracic Surgery? A Tertiary Center Experiences

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Preoperative anemia has been associated with an increased risk of postoperative complications after major surgeries. The incidence of anemia is not low according to the literature. We designed this study to find out our incidence of preoperative anemia and the relationship between preoperative anemia and postoperative complications in thoracic surgical patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was designed as retrospectively study. The demographic features, including age, sex, the American Society of Anaesthesiologists scores, preoperative hemoglobin (Hb) levels, transferrin saturations, comorbidities, blood types and blood product transfusions, complications, mortality, types of surgery, lengths of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, chest tube removal times and lengths of hospital stay were recorded. The relationships between anemia and complications were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 225 patients were initially included in this study, with 2 patients later being excluded. The preoperative Hb value of 40.4% of the patients was below 13 mg/dL. Complications were seen in 58 (26.0%) patients in total. Complications were observed in 22 (24.4%) patients with preoperative Hb levels below 13 mg/dL and in 36 (27.1%) patients with preoperative Hb levels above 13 mg/dL. Postoperative erythrocyte suspension (ES) was used in 9.7% of patients without complications, while this rate was 24.1% in those patients with complications. CONCLUSION: This study did not find a correlation between preoperative anemia and postoperative complications after thoracotomy, but anemic patients required more ES transfusion and ES is related with prolonged ICU and hospital stay. We can conclude that preoperative anemia indirectly affects postoperative complications in thoracic surgery.