Influence of Age on Anastomotic Leakage in Patients with Colorectal Cancer Undergoing Surgery: A Meta-analysis Using Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Abstract

Numerous studies have been conducted to compare the incidence of anastomotic leakage between aged and non-aged patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), although the patient background factors were not aligned in most studies.Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the influence of age on the risk of anastomotic leakage following surgery in patients with CRC.We performed a comprehensive electronic search of the literature published until March 2020 to identify propensity score matching (PSM) studies conducted to compare the incidence of anastomotic leakage between aged and non-aged patients with CRC. A meta-analysis was also performed using random-effects models to calculate the risk ratio (RR) and 95％ confidence interval (CI), and heterogeneity was analyzed using I 2 statistics.Three studies involving a total of 1207 patients who had undergone surgery for CRC were included in this meta-analysis. The rate of postoperative anastomotic leakage was 6.5％ (34/523) in the aged patient group, and 4.7％ (32/684) in the non-aged patient group. The meta-analysis revealed no significant difference in the incidence of anastomotic leakage between the two age groups (RR, 1.26; 95％ CI, 0.80-2.00; P = 0.32; I 2 = 0％).Thus, this meta-analysis revealed no significant influence of age on the risk of anastomotic leakage