Association between perioperative oral care and postoperative pneumonia after cancer resection: conventional versus high-dimensional propensity score matching analysis

摘要

Objectives Perioperative oral care was reported to decrease postoperative pneumonia after cancer resections. However, the effect remains controversial because previous studies were limited due to their small sample sizes and lack of strict control for patient backgrounds. The present study evaluated the association between perioperative oral care and postoperative pneumonia using high-dimensional propensity score (hd-PS) matching to adjust for confounding factors. Materials and methods Using a Japanese health insurance claims database, we identified patients who underwent surgical treatment of cancer from April 2014 to March 2015. To compare outcomes (postoperative pneumonia and procedure-related complications) between patients with and without perioperative oral care, we performed hd-PS matching and conventional PS matching and chi-square test. Results We identified 621 patients with oral care and 4374 patients without oral care. The occurrences of postoperative pneumonia were not significantly different between patients with and without oral care in the unmatched (2.9% vs. 3.2%), conventional PS-matched (2.9% vs. 2.9%), or hd-PS-matched (2.9% vs. 3.3%) groups. The occurrences of procedure-related complication were not significantly different between patients with and without oral care in the unmatched (23.8% vs. 24.5%), conventional PS-matched (23.8% vs. 26.4%), or hd-PS-matched (24.4% vs. 27.7%) groups. Conclusions There was no significant difference in postoperative pneumonia or procedure-related complications between patients with and without perioperative oral care.