Treatment of the residual cavity during hepatic hydatidosis surgery: a cohort study of capitonnage vs. omentoplasty

To determine the efficacy of omentoplasty (OP) and capitonnage (CA) in residual cavity management during the hepatic hydatidosis (HH) surgery in terms of the postoperative morbidity. Prospective cohort study. Patients with non-complicated HH treated with subtotal pericystectomy in the Department of Surgery of the Temuco Regional Hospital between 2001 and 2008 were studied. We compared those managed with CA with those managed with OP. A sample size of 40 patients in each group was estimated to be needed to adequately compare the outcomes of the approaches. The primary endpoint was postoperative morbidity. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses and logistic regression models were applied. The absolute risk (AR) and relative risk (RR) were calculated. The cohorts comprised 88 patients (CA 40 and OP 48), with a median age of 40 years (15-84), and 62.5 % were females. A general postoperative morbidity rate of 11.4 % was noted after a median follow-up of 60 months (12-84 months). Significant differences in postoperative morbidity were found (p = 0.044). Logistic regression models verified that there were no confounding variables. The AR of the postoperative morbidity for the CA and PO cohorts was 0.025 and 0.1875, respectively, and the RR was 0.13 [0.03, 0.70] 95 % CI. Residual cavity management with CA is associated with a lower postoperative morbidity risk than OP.