Drain Placement After Uncomplicated Hepatic Resection Increases Severe Postoperative Complication Rate

“Advances in surgical techniques and perioperative management over the last 2–3 decades have enabled the safe performance of hepatic resections. In the 1980s, when the perioperative mortality was reported to be as high as around 10%, drain placement was
considered to be necessary so as to provide information about intraabdominal adverse events promptly and for prophylactic drainage. However, as the necessity of drain placement in other surgical fields has been ruled out and as the incidence of life-threatening adverse
events after hepatic resection decreased, several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were performed; the conclusions of these trials were that drain placement was not necessary. However, some of them lacked a primary endpoint and calculation of sample size; in
the other studies, the primary endpoint was the incidence of wound-related complication, most of which could be resolved using antibiotics or bed-side opening of the wound, corresponding to Clavien-Dindo (C-D) grade 11 2 or even 1.”

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Value of primary operative drain placement after major hepatectomy

“Historically, prophylactic intraoperative peritoneal drain placement has been advocated after hepatectomy in order to identify and drain bile leaks and decrease the risk of potential perihepatic fluid collections and abscess formation postoperatively. Several small randomized trials have suggested, however, that routine abdominal drainage after elective liver resection may not be necessary.”

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Role of Drain Placement in Major Hepatectomy

“The use of drains in surgery has been practiced for many years. Prophylactic drainage of the abdominal cavity is employed to prevent the formation of collections and abscesses and for early detection of complications. For years, there has been debate as to whether the use of prophylactic drains has more advantages than disadvantages. For many procedures such as routine colon resection, cholecystectomy, and appendectomy, the use of prophylactic drains has been abandoned as studies have shown that drains do not lower the rate of postoperative complications. However, there is still debate of whether to leave a drain routinely after major liver resection.”

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Postpancreatectomy hemorrhages: risk factors and outcomes

One discussion this week involved etiologies of postpancreatectomy hemorrhage.


Reference: Yekebas EF, et al. Postpancreatectomy hemorrhage: diagnosis and treatment: an analysis in 1669 consecutive pancreatic resections. Annals of Surgery. 2007 Aug;246(2):269-280. doi:10.1097/01.sla.0000262953.77735.db

Summary: With the purpose of creating algorithms for managing postpancreatectomy hemorrhage (PPH), Yekebas et al (2007) restrospectively analyzed more than 1669 pancreatic resections conducted between 1992 and 2006.  They concluded that the prognosis of postpancreatectomy hemorrhage (PPH) is primarily dependent on the presence of “preceding pancreatic fistula” (p.269).

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Cirrhotic nutritional management

“Prevalence of malnutrition in chronic liver disease ranges between 10% and 100%, depends on severity of liver disease. Prevalence is more in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis compared to nonalcoholic cirrhotics. 3 Malnutrition is seen in all clinical stages but is easier to detect in advanced stages of liver cirrhosis. Many patients have subtle changes such as fat soluble vitamin deficiency, anemia from iron, folate or pyridoxine deficiency, altered cell-mediated immune functions and minimal loss of muscle mass, while patients with end-stage liver disease have muscle wasting, decreased fat stores, and cachexia.”

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Postoperative pancreatic fistula

This week’s discussion included risk scoring and management of postoperative pancreatic fistula.


Nahm CB, Connor SJ, Samra JS, Mittal A. Postoperative pancreatic fistula: a
review of traditional and emerging concepts. Clin Exp Gastroenterol. 2018 Mar
15;11:105-118.

Prediction: “Biochemical markers of POP after pancreatic resection are evident from the first postoperative day. These include serum amylase and lipase, and urinary trypsinogen-2. In an observational study of 61 patients undergoing pancreatic resection, the presence of POP on the first postoperative day as determined by these markers was found to be a strong predictor of the development of POPF (OR 17.81, 95% CI 2.17–145.9) [128]

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Refractory Variceal Bleed in Cirrhosis

Acute variceal bleeding is the major cause of mortality in patients with cirrhosis. The standard medical and endo-scopic treatment has reduced the mortality of variceal bleeding from 50% to 10–20%. The refractory variceal bleedis either because of failure to control the bleed or failure of secondary prophylaxis. The patients refractory to standardmedical therapy need further interventions. The rescue therapies include balloon tamponade, self-expanding metalstents (SEMS) placement, shunt procedures, including transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS),balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (BRTO), and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided coiling.

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