Clinical features of pulmonary emboli in patients following cytoreductive surgery (peritonectomy) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (hipec), a single centre experience.

BACKGROUND: Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS-HIPEC) can be complicated by pulmonary emboli (PE). Patients are at high risk due to surgery, underlying malignancy, immobility and indwelling lines.

OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to identify clinically significant signs and symptoms preceding acute PE in post CRS-HIPEC patients, assess the PE investigative approach in this population and the significance of PE on patient management.

METHOD: 25 cases with a positive and 50 controls with a negative CTPA for PE were isolated from the peritonectomy database at St George Hospital Sydney, January 2006 to July 2013. Vital signs, patient symptoms, adjunct investigation findings and patient outcomes were collected and graphed in Microsoft Excel. P values and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using GraphPad Prism version 6.

RESULTS: 25 of 562 (4.4%) CRS-HIPEC patients were diagnosed with acute PE. Raised body temperature was the only statistically significant clinical finding that differentiated cases from controls (p value 0.02). Arterial blood gas results did not correlate with PE (p values 0.62; 0.29; 0.55, 0.84). Troponin, ECG and CXR were not routinely conducted. CXR and CTPA findings were similar between cases and controls (Table 4). PE patients required lower supplementary oxygen and escalation of care.

CONCLUSION: Body temperature is the only statistically significant clinical finding observed with PE. We recommend a standardised investigative approach consisting of troponin, ECG and CXR. PE in CRS-HIPEC does not cause significant cardio-respiratory dysfunction, or escalation of care. PE rates are higher than other major surgeries, thus we propose a trial with increased chemical prophylaxis in CRS-HIPEC patients.