Sarcopenia and Charlson Comorbidity Index are Risk Factors for Short-Term Postoperative Prognosis of Elderly Patients with Gastrointestinal Tumor: A Retrospective Study

Abstract Background Sarcopenia is one of the most common syndromes in the older adults. Gastrointestinal tumor is a malignant disease with high incidence. This study aimed to investigate the risk factors of sarcopenia in older adults with gastrointestinal tumor, the prognostic indicators of and short-term outcomes after resection for gastrointestinal tumor, and to explore the relationship between sarcopenia and short-term postoperative prognosis. Method A total of 247 older patients with gastrointestinal tumors who underwent radical resection in 2019 were included in this study. Relevant indexes were calculated using L3 slice image of computed tomography (CT) to evaluate sarcopenia. Short-term postoperative complications and length of stay were considered as short-term outcome of this study. Results Advanced age, lower higher body mass index (BMI), lower hemoglobin, having history of abdominal surgery and higher visceral fat index (VFI) were risk factors of sarcopenia, while higher BMI and lower subcutaneous fat index (SFI) were protective factors of sarcopenia. Further multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that having history of abdominal surgery, advanced age and lower BMI were independent risk factors. Sarcopenia and higher Charlson comorbidity index were independent risk factors of short-term postoperative complications in the elderly with gastrointestinal tumor. Higher Charlson comorbidity index gave rise to longer length of stay. Conclusions Sarcopenia and higher Charlson comorbidity index predict poor short-term prognosis of older patients undergoing gastrointestinal tumor resection.