The effect of preoperative blood transfusion on morbidity and survival in colorectal malignancy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: It is believed that blood transfusions adversely affect colorectal cancer surgery. However, intra- and postoperative blood transfusions represent urgent interventions, and immeasurable confounding factors may affect the shortand long-term outcome. Therefore, we compared colorectal cancer patients who had received preoperative blood transfusion with patients who did not receive transfusions with regard to postoperative complications and long-term outcome. METHODS: The records of 333 patients who were operated for colorectal malignancy between 1980 and 1995 were evaluated. RESULTS: Sixty-one patients (18.3%) received preoperative blood transfusions. Wound infection rate was higher (14.2% vs 1.9%) in the no-transfusion group. Disease-free survival was not different between the groups (p=0.134). Cumulative survival was adversely affected in the preoperative transfusion group (p=0.012). However, preoperative blood transfusion did not emerge to be an independent factor for wound infection or for death on follow-up when the confounding factors were corrected. CONCLUSION: Preoperative transfusion during surgery for colorectal malignancy does not result in an increase in postoperative complications, long-term failure or death rates.