The impact of cirrhosis on the postoperative outcomes of patients undergoing splenectomy: Propensity score matched analysis of the 2011–2017 US hospital database

Background & objective: While splenectomy is performed for various trauma and non-trauma indications, there is little information about the impact of cirrhosis on the post-splenectomy outcomes, despite the intricate physiological and vascular connection between the liver and the spleen. Methods: 2011–2017 National Inpatient Sample was used to select patient cases who underwent the splenectomy procedure, who were further stratified using cirrhosis. The cirrhosis-absent controls were matched to the study cohort using propensity score matching with nearest neighbor matching method. Endpoints included mortality, length of stay, hospitalization costs, and postoperative complications. Results: There were 675 patients with cirrhosis and 675 matched controls identified from the database. Cirrhosis cohort had higher mortality (20.0 vs 7.26%, p