Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Value of pre-existent bacterial colonization in patients with advanced/relapsed ovarian neoplasms undergoing cytoreductive surgery: a multicenter observational study (BONSAI)
  1. Christina Fotopoulou1,
  2. Natasha Rinne1,
  3. Valentina Ghirardi2,3,
  4. Paulea Cunnea1,
  5. Anastasis Drosou4,
  6. Dimitrios Tzovaras4,
  7. Maria Teresa Giudice2,3,
  8. Giovanni Scambia3 and
  9. Anna Fagotti2,3
  1. 1 Gynaecologic Oncology, Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London Faculty of Medicine, London, UK
  2. 2 Istituto di Ginecologia e Ostetricia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
  3. 3 Dipartimento Scienze della Salute della Donna e del Bambino, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy
  4. 4 Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Information Technologies Institute, Thessaloniki, Greece
  1. Correspondence to Professor Christina Fotopoulou, Gynaecologic Oncology, Imperial College London Faculty of Medicine, London W12 0HS, UK; chfotopoulou{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objective As an increasing number of patients with advanced/relapsed ovarian cancer need extensive cytoreductive procedures, there is an increasing number of complex cases collected in accredited tertiary cancer centers. With nosocomial infections and bacterial colonizations being a significant challenge in these patient cohorts, we aimed to evaluate the risk such infections pose to surgical outcome.

Methods Prospective assessment of pathological bacterial colonization (vaginal, umbilical/groin, intraperitoneal, urine, oral/nose cavity) in patients who underwent open cytoreductive surgery for advanced/relapsed ovarian cancer in two large European tertiary referral centers for gynecologic malignancies. We recruited patients at initial diagnosis with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage III and IV ovarian cancer and patients undergoing surgery for relapse. Swabs or cultures were taken from the following sites: vagina, groin and/or umbilicus, urine, intraperitoneal, mouth and/or nose. Only evidence of pathogenic bacteria was considered positive for bacterial colonization.

Results A total of 172 primary advanced (70.9%) or relapsed (29.1%) ovarian cancer patients were included; 63.4% of them had received chemotherapy±additional targeted agents (16.3%) by the time of cytoreduction. 39.5% of the patients had a long-term vascular access line in situ. A bowel resection was performed in 44.8% and a splenectomy in 16.3% of the patients. Predefined surgical morbidity and mortality were 22.3% and 0%, respectively. Forty-one patients (23.8%) screened positive for pathogenic bacterial colonization with the presence of long-term intravenous access as the only independent risk factor identified (OR 2.34; 95% CI 1.05 to 5.34; p=0.04). Type of systemic treatments, previous bowel resections, previous hospitalizations, and patient demographics did not appear to significantly impact the risk of bacterial colonization. Furthermore, pathogenic bacterial colonization was shown to have no significant effect on peri-operative infection-related complications such as abscesses, wound infection, pneumonia, relaparotomy, or anastomotic leak.

Conclusions A total of 24% of patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery for ovarian cancer were confirmed positive for pathogenic bacterial colonization. The presence of long-term intravenous access was identified as the only significant risk factor for that, however the presence of pathogenic bacterial colonization per se did not seem to adversely affect outcome of cytoreductive effort or increase perioperative infection related complications.

  • ovarian cancer
  • surgical wound infection
  • gynecologic surgical procedures
  • parenteral nutrition

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Contributors All authors fulfill the authorship criteria.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent for publication Not required.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

  • Data availability statement Data are available upon reasonable request. All related data can be requested from the corresponding author.