Clinical outcomes of patients with and without diabetes mellitus after hepatectomy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Clinical data regarding the influence of diabetes mellitus (DM) on the outcomes of patients undergoing hepatectomy are conflicting. To determine the impact of DM on the clinical outcomes of patients undergoing hepatectomy, we systematically reviewed published studies and carried out a meta-analysis. Methods A systematic literature search of Pubmed, Sciencedirect, Web of Science, and Chinese Biomedical Database was conducted from their inception through February 2, 2016. The combined relative risk (RR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) was calculated. Results A total of 16 observational studies with 15710 subjects were eligible for meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that DM significantly increased the risk of overall postoperative complications (RR 1.34; 95% CI 1.19-1.51; P<0.001), DM-associated complications (RR 1.8; 95% CI 1.29-2.53; P<0.001), liver failure (RR 2.21; 95% CI 1.3-3.76; P = 0.028) and postoperative infections (RR 1.59; 95% CI 1.01-2.5; P = 0.045). In addition, DM was also found to be significantly associated with unfavorable overall survival and disease free survival after liver resection. The pooled HR was 1.63 (95% CI 1.33-1.99; P<0.001) for overall survival and 1.55 (95% CI 1.07-2.25; P = 0.019) for disease free survival. Conclusion DM is associated with poor outcomes in patients undergoing hepatectomy. DM should be taken into account cautiously in the management of patients undergoing hepatectomy. Further prospective studies are warranted to explore effective interventions to improve the poor outcomes of diabetic patients undergoing hepatectomy.