European journal of surgical oncology : the journal of the European Society of Surgical Oncology and the British Association of Surgical Oncology
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Cytoreductive-surgery for peritoneal-malignancy (PM) involves extensive intra-abdominal surgery and a massive post-operative systemic-inflammatory-response (SIRS). It is often challenging to differentiate SIRS that are solely surgery-associated from those of post-operative infections. White-Cell-Counts (WCC) and C-Reactive-Protein (CRP) are routinely used as markers for infection, but are non-specific and their elevation is often delayed in PM cases. Other markers need to be evaluated to assist early identification/prediction of post-operative infections. ⋯ PCT, like WCC and CRP, needs to be interpreted with extreme cautions in the context of infections post-cytoreductive-surgery and should only be used in association with other clinical and investigational findings.