Utility of the surgical Apgar score for predicting the short- and long-term outcomes in non-small-cell lung cancer patients who undergo surgery

OBJECTIVES: The surgical Apgar score (SAS) is a simple score that predicts postoperative complications based on 3 intraoperative valuables. The present study evaluated the association between the SAS and postoperative outcomes in non-small-cell lung cancer patients who underwent surgery. METHODS: A total of 585 patients who underwent lung resection were enrolled in the present study. We calculated the SAS of each patient and investigated its influence on the short- and long-term outcomes. RESULTS: Postoperative complications of any grade were detected in 164 cases (28%). The morbidity rate increased with decreasing SAS. When all the patients were divided into 2 groups (SAS <7 vs >= 7), postoperative complications were observed more frequently in group than in the SAS >= 7 group (41% vs 25%, P < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, the SAS was an independent risk factor for postoperative complications (odds ratio: 1.64 [1.03-2.61], P = 0.036). In terms of long-term outcomes, the 5-year disease-free survival (54.1% vs 73.2%, P < 0.001) and overall survival (73.8% vs 83.0%, P= 0.031) were significantly worse in the SAS <7 group than in the SAS >= 7 group. In a multivariate analysis, however, the SAS was not found to be an independent prognostic factor for either disease-free survival (hazard ratio: 1.39 [0.97-2.00], P = 0.075) or overall survival (hazard ratio: 0.90 [0.57-1.42], P = 0.642). CONCLUSIONS: The SAS reflected preoperative and intraoperative characteristics and was able to stratify the morbidity rate, suggesting it to be a useful predictor of short-term outcomes in non-small-cell lung cancer patients who undergo surgery.