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Cirrhotic patients are at higher risk than are noncirrhotic patients for postsurgical morbidity and mortality (except after liver transplant). Traditionally, a Child-Pugh score >7 is used to predict which patients have the highest risk for surgical mortality. Use of the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score to predict risk for surgery-related mortality in cirrhotic patients who are undergoing non–liver-transplant surgery has not been studied until now.
Mayo Clinic investigators retrospectively evaluated short- and long-term mortality risks in 772 cirrhotic patients who underwent major digestive, orthopedic, or cardiac surgical procedures. Patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomies were excluded, because surgical risks in …