Assessing the risk of surgery in patients with cirrhosis

Abstract

Patients with cirrhosis have an increased perioperative risk relative to patients without cirrhosis. This is related to numerous cirrhosis-specific factors, including severity of liver disease, impaired synthetic function, sarcopenia and malnutrition, and portal hypertension, among others. Nonhepatic comorbidities and surgery-related factors further modify the surgical risk, adding to the complexity of the preoperative assessment. In this review, we discuss the pathophysiological contributors to surgical risk in cirrhosis, key elements of the preoperative risk assessment, and application of risk prediction tools including the Child-Turcotte-Pugh score, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease-Sodium, Mayo Risk Score, and the VOCAL-Penn Score. We also detail the limitations of current approaches to risk assessment and highlight areas for future research.