The Effect of Bilirubin on Clinical Outcomes of Patients With Colorectal Cancer Surgery: A Ten-Year Volume Single-Center Retrospective Study

The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of bilirubin on the outcomes of colorectal cancer (CRC) in patients who underwent radical CRC surgery. The levels of serum bilirubin, including total bilirubin (TBil), direct bilirubin (DBil) and indirect bilirubin (IBil), were divided into higher groups and lower groups according to the median. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to analyze the independent predictors for overall complications and major complications. For TBil, the hospitalization time of the higher TBil group was longer than that of the lower TBil group (p = 0.014 < 0.05). For DBil, the higher DBil group had longer operation times (p < 0.01), more intraoperative bleeding (p < 0.01), longer hospital stays (p < 0.01), and higher rates of overall complications (p < 0.01) and major complications (p = 0.021 < 0.05) than the lower DBil group. For the IBil group, blood loss during operation (p < 0.01) and hospital stays (p = 0.041 < 0.05) in the higher IBil group were lower than those in the lower IBil group. In terms of complications, we found that DBil was an independent predictor for overall complications (p < 0.01, OR = 1.036, 95% CI = 1.014-1.058) and major complications (p = 0.043, HR= 1.355, 95% CI= 1.009-1.820). Higher preoperative DBil increase the risk of complications after primary CRC surgery.