Characteristics of abdominal cavity drainage fluid in Chinese patients without postoperative complications after surgery for gastrointestinal or retroperitoneal tumors

Jing Zhou,¹ Hongying Pi,² Yingying Zheng<sup>1

1</sup>General Surgery, ²Nursing Department, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Background: Abdominal cavity drainage fluid can be used as an early diagnostic tool of postoperative complications, and observing its characteristics can help us to judge and handle postoperative complications. There is no accurate standard reference range on its characteristics after surgeries for gastrointestinal or retroperitoneal tumors. This research attempted to analyze its characteristics in Chinese patients without postoperative complications after surgery for gastrointestinal or retroperitoneal tumors, and to offer an experimental basis for establishing a reliable standard reference range for abdominal cavity drainage fluid used to detect postoperative complications.
Methods: This study enrolled 262 Chinese patients without postoperative complications after surgery for gastrointestinal or retroperitoneal tumors.
Results: All patients had a median age (range) of 55 (19–72) years, and 150 (57.3%) were men. There were 93 (35.5%), 115 (43.9%), and 54 (20.6%) patients who underwent surgery for upper gastrointestinal tumors, lower gastrointestinal tumors, and retroperitoneal tumors, respectively. The total amount, density, and pH of the abdominal cavity drainage fluid were 204 (0–6,195) mL, 1.032 (1.011–1.047) kg/m³, and pH 7.0 (5.0–7.5), respectively. The total numbers of cells and white blood cells were 1.3×10¹¹ (5.5×10⁸–6.2×10¹²)/L and 3.7×10⁹ (1.0×10⁷–5.0×10¹¹)/L, respectively. The levels of sugar and protein were 3 (0–37) mmol/L and 39 (1–272) g/L. The total amount of abdominal cavity drainage fluid, the total number of cells, the total number of white blood cells, the number of multinucleated cells, the number of monocytes, and the levels of sugar were statistically significantly different between the three groups (P<0.05 for all).
Conclusion: This study described the characteristics of abdominal cavity drainage fluid in Chinese patients without postoperative complications after surgery for gastrointestinal or retroperitoneal tumors, and provided an experimental basis for establishing a reliable standard reference range for abdominal cavity drainage fluid for screening for postoperative complications.

Keywords: abdominal cavity drainage fluid, People’s Republic of China, gastrointestinal tumors, postoperative complications, retroperitoneal tumors