{"entity":{"id":"surgical-morbidity","kind":"term","name":"Surgical morbidity and postoperative complications","aka":["morbidity","postoperative morbidity","perioperative morbidity","perioperative mortality","postoperative mortality","30-day mortality","90-day mortality","operative mortality","postoperative complications","complication rate","complication rates","anastomotic leak","anastomotic leakage","anastomosis","pancreatic fistula","wound infection","surgical site infection","Clavien-Dindo","length of stay","readmission","failure to rescue","textbook outcome","readmissions"],"tldr":"The harms of an operation itself: complications (leaks, infections, bleeding, pneumonia), time in hospital, and deaths within 30 or 90 days. Big cancer operations carry real risk, which is weighed against their chance of cure and drives the search for less invasive alternatives.","summary":"Morbidity is graded by the Clavien-Dindo scale and reported alongside mortality; oesophagectomy and pancreaticoduodenectomy have 30-50% complication rates and 2-5% mortality, colectomy far less. Anastomotic leak (where two ends of bowel are joined) is the most feared complication in gastrointestinal surgery and can delay adjuvant chemotherapy or cause death. Complications are reduced by centralisation, minimally invasive approaches, enhanced recovery (ERAS) protocols, prehabilitation and geriatric assessment; 'failure to rescue' (dying from a complication) distinguishes good from poor hospitals more than complication rates do. Ninety-day mortality is now preferred over 30-day because deaths from complications are often later.","asOf":"2026-09-09","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complication_(medicine)","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complication_(medicine)"}],"tags":[],"related":["centralisation","eras-perioperative-nutrition","oesophagectomy","whipple","minimally-invasive-surgery"],"cancers":[],"sections":["surgery"],"technologies":["prehabilitation","geriatric-assessment"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Treatment jargon"},"route":"/terms/surgical-morbidity/","neighbours":{"term":[{"id":"antiangiogenic-toxicities","kind":"term","name":"Anti-VEGF class toxicities (hypertension, proteinuria, bleeding, perforation)","route":"/terms/antiangiogenic-toxicities/"},{"id":"centralisation","kind":"term","name":"Centralisation and high-volume centres","route":"/terms/centralisation/"},{"id":"distal-pancreatectomy","kind":"term","name":"Distal pancreatectomy (removal of the body and tail of the pancreas, usually with the spleen)","route":"/terms/distal-pancreatectomy/"},{"id":"minimally-invasive-surgery","kind":"term","name":"Minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic, robotic, VATS)","route":"/terms/minimally-invasive-surgery/"},{"id":"oesophagectomy","kind":"term","name":"Oesophagectomy","route":"/terms/oesophagectomy/"},{"id":"vascular-resection-pancreatic","kind":"term","name":"Vascular resection in pancreatic cancer surgery (portal and superior mesenteric vein resection; arterial resection)","route":"/terms/vascular-resection-pancreatic/"},{"id":"whipple","kind":"term","name":"Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy)","route":"/terms/whipple/"}],"technology":[{"id":"eras-perioperative-nutrition","kind":"technology","name":"Enhanced recovery (ERAS) and perioperative nutrition","route":"/technologies/eras-perioperative-nutrition/"},{"id":"geriatric-assessment","kind":"technology","name":"Geriatric assessment","route":"/technologies/geriatric-assessment/"},{"id":"prehabilitation","kind":"technology","name":"Prehabilitation before cancer surgery","route":"/technologies/prehabilitation/"}],"section":[{"id":"surgery","kind":"section","name":"Surgery & Interventional","route":"/fronts/surgery/"}]}}