Effect of perioperative blood transfusion on complications and prognosis after radical gastrectomy in elderly patients: a retrospective study of 1,666 cases.

Background: Multiple studies have examined the effect of perioperative blood transfusion (BTF) on postoperative complications and the prognosis of gastric cancer patients, but the conclusions remain controversial, and few studies related to elderly patients are present. This study sought to examine the effect of perioperative BTF on postoperative complications and the prognosis of elderly patients who underwent radical gastrectomy. Methods: The clinical data of 1,666 elderly patients (aged ≥60 years) at Xijing Hospital from October 2013 to October 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were stratified into the perioperative BTF group and the perioperative non-BTF group. The clinicopathological characteristics, postoperative complications, and long-term prognoses of the patients were compared. Results: There were significant differences in terms of sex, tumor location, tumor size, gastrectomy range, tumor differentiation, T stage, N stage, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, preoperative anemia, and intraoperative blood loss between the two groups (P<0.05). The incidence of postoperative fever in the BTF group was significantly higher than that in the non-BTF group (31.6% Conclusions: Perioperative BTF may elevate the incidence of fever but has no significant effect on other complications in elderly patients after radical gastrectomy. Perioperative BTF is not an independent risk factor affecting the postoperative prognosis of elderly patients with gastric cancer.