Intensive care admissions among ovarian cancer patients treated with primary debulking surgery and neoadjuvant chemotherapy-interval debulking surgery

Objective Admissions to intensive care units (ICU) are costly, but are necessary for some patients undergoing radical cancer surgery. When compared to primary debulking surgery (PDS), neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) with interval debulking surgery, is associated with less peri-operative morbidity. In this study, we compare rates, indications and lengths of ICU stays among ovarian cancer patients admitted to the ICU within 30 days of cytoreduction, either primary or interval. Methods A retrospective chart review was performed of patients with stage III-IV ovarian cancer who underwent surgical cytoreduction at two large academic medical centers between 2010 and 2014. Chi square tests, Student t-tests, and Mann-U Whitney tests were used. Results A total of 635 patients were included in the study. There were 43 ICU admissions, 7% of patients. Compared to NACT, a higher percentage of PDS patients required ICU admission, 9.4% vs 3.9% of patients (P = 0.004). ICU admission indications did not vary between PDS and NACT patients. NACT patients admitted to the ICU had comparable mean surgical complexity scores to those PDS patients admitted to the ICU, 6.2 (95%CI 5.3–7.1) vs 4.5 (95%CI 3.1–6.0) (P = 0.006). Length of ICU admission did not vary between groups, PDS 2.7 days (95%CI 2.3–3.2) vs 3.5 days (95%CI 1.5–5.6) for NACT (P = 0.936). Conclusions The rate of ICU admissions among patients undergoing PDS is higher than for NACT. Among patients admitted to the ICU, indications for admission, length of stay and surgical complexity were similar between patients treated with NACT and PDS.