PD1045 - ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE TONGUE COATING MICROBIOME AND POSTOPERATIVE FEVER FOLLOWING ESOPHAGECTOMY

PD1045

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE TONGUE COATING MICROBIOME AND POSTOPERATIVE FEVER FOLLOWING ESOPHAGECTOMY

R. Yamanaka-Kohno^1,*, K. Uemi², T. N. Jayasinghe³, A. Yokoi⁴, N. Toyama⁵, H. Suenaga⁶, R. Akhter⁶, N. Takeuchi¹, T. Maruyama⁴, D. Ekuni⁴

¹Department of Preventive Dentistry, Medical Development Field, Okayama University, ²Dental School, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan, ³Westmead Oral Health Research Hub, Sydney Dental School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, ⁴Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan, ⁵Program in MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States, ⁶Sydney Dental School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Rationale: Esophagectomy is one of the most invasive gastrointestinal surgeries and is associated with a high risk of postoperative complications such as fever and pneumonia. The tongue coating microbiome has been implicated in respiratory tract colonization and may play a role in postoperative infectious complications. This study aimed to investigate the association between postoperative fever and the preoperative tongue coating microbiome.

Methods: Thirty-two patients with thoracic esophageal cancer who underwent radical esophagectomy at Okayama University Hospital were included. All patients received perioperative oral management and gum-chewing training. Clinical data including baseline characteristics and clinical variables were collected preoperatively and 2 weeks after surgery. Postoperative fever was defined as a body temperature of ≥38 °C within two weeks after surgery. Patients were classified into fever and non-fever groups. Tongue coating samples were collected preoperatively and analyzed using next-generation sequencing and MicrobiomeAnalyst.

Results: Among the 32 patients, no significant differences were observed in baseline characteristics and clinical variables between the fever and non-fever groups. Postoperative fever developed in 22 patients. No significant differences were observed in α-diversity indices between the groups. However, β-diversity analysis revealed significant differences in microbial community composition between the fever and non-fever groups (PERMANOVA, p = 0.030). LEfSe analysis showed that the genus Rothia was significantly more abundant in the non-fever group (p = 0.003), whereas the genus Capnocytophaga was more abundant in the fever group (p = 0.002).

Conclusion: Differences in the relative abundance of Capnocytophaga and Rothia may be associated with postoperative fever and could reflect underlying inflammatory processes related to the oral microbiome.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared