Abstract
Introduction: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a primary tumor of the central nervous system (CNS). It is one of the most aggressive tumors affectinghumans, hasno cure, and has an extremely inverse prognosis, with an average survival ranging from 7 to 15 months. The role of opioids, either in stopping or stimulating tumor progression, has been demonstrated. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of intraoperative opioid use on patient survival.
Methods: This retrospective study included 133 patients who underwent 167 surgical procedures for glioblastoma resection. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were as follows: patients older than 18 years, of both sexes, and those with confirmed GBM. Patients who died in the postoperative period due to causes unrelated to the underlying disease were excluded, as were those who did not have specific data on the medications used in the perioperative period in their records. The following outcomes were analyzed: age, preoperative and postoperative Karnofsky scale (KPS) scores, duration of the surgical procedure, opioid dose, overall survival, disease-free survival, sex, and race. Correlation tests were performed using the Spearman test, a T1-robust ANOVA test was used to assess variance between the opioid dosage groups, and Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between opioid dosage and patient survival.
Results: Analysis of the correlation between total opioid dosage and the investigated variables showed that surgical duration and age at surgery were significantly correlated with the total opioid dosage. There was no association between the total opioid dosage and the survival times of patients.
Conclusion: This study suggests that there is no relationship between intraoperative opioid dosage and overall ordisease-free survival in patients receiving glioblastoma treatment.