High impact complications after Whipple procedure

Mirrielees JA, et al. Pancreatic Fistula and Delayed Gastric Emptying Are the Highest-Impact Complications After Whipple. J Surg Res. 2020 Jun;250:80-87.

Full-text for Emory users.

Results: About 10,922 patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy were included for analysis. The most common postoperative complications were DGE (17.3%), POPF (10.1%), incisional SSI (10.0%), and organ/space SSI (6.2%). POPF and DGE were the only complications that demonstrated sizable effects for all clinical and resource utilization outcomes studied. Other complications had sizable effects for only a few of the outcomes or had small effects for all the outcomes.

Continue reading

Pancreas-preserving duodenectomy

Di Saverio S, et al. Pancreas-sparing, ampulla-preserving duodenectomy for major duodenal (D1-D2) perforations. Br J Surg. 2018 Oct;105(11):1487-1492.

Results: Ten patients were treated with this technique; seven had perforated or bleeding peptic ulcers, two had iatrogenic perforations and one blunt abdominal trauma. Their mean age was 78 (range 65-84) years. Four patients were haemodynamically unstable. The location of the duodenal injury was always D1 and/or D2, above or in close proximity to the ampulla of Vater. The surgical approach was open in nine patients and laparoscopic in one. The mean duration of surgery was 264 (range 170-377) min. All patients were transferred to the ICU after surgery (mean ICU stay 4·4 (range 1-11) days), and the overall mean hospital stay was 17·8 (range 10-32) days. Six patients developed major postoperative complications: cardiorespiratory failure in five and gastrointestinal complications in four. Surgical reoperation was needed in one patient for postoperative necrotizing and bleeding pancreatitis. Two patients died from their complications.

Continue reading

Article of interest: Biliary complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy: skinny bile ducts are surgeons’ enemies

Duconseil P, Turrini O, Ewald J, et al. Biliary complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy: skinny bile ducts are surgeons’ enemies. World J Surg. 2014 Nov;38(11):2946-51.

Full-text for Emory users.

Results: Thirty patients experienced a BC: 13 BLs (3.3 %) and 17 BSs (4.3 %). A thin bile duct (<5 mm), measured during surgery, was the only predisposing factor for developing a BL or a BS. The management of the BLs consisted of surveillance in six patients (46 %), percutaneous drainage of bilioma in four patients (31 %), and reintervention in three patients (23 %). No patient with a BS had surgery as the frontline treatment: the initial management consisted of an endoscopic procedure, a percutaneous procedure, or medical treatment. Four patients (23.5 %) underwent surgical treatment after failure of nonsurgical procedures.

Conclusions: The only identified predictive factor of BC, either a BS or a BL, was a thin bile duct. Although the noninvasive technique was the treatment of choice initially, reintervention was required in almost 25 % of the cases.

Continue reading

Pancreaticoduodenectomy with and without routine intraperitoneal drainage

Van Buren G 2nd, Bloomston M, Hughes SJ, et al. A randomized prospective multicenter trial of pancreaticoduodenectomy with and without routine intraperitoneal drainage. Ann Surg. 2014 Apr;259(4):605-12.

Full-text for Emory users.

Results: There were no differences between drain and no-drain cohorts in demographics, comorbidities, pathology, pancreatic duct size, pancreas texture, baseline quality of life, or operative technique. PD without intraperitoneal drainage was associated with an increase in the number of complications per patient [1 (0-2) vs 2 (1-4), P = 0.029]; an increase in the number of patients who had at least 1 ≥grade 2 complication [35 (52%) vs 47 (68%), P = 0.047]; and a higher average complication severity [2 (0-2) vs 2 (1-3), P = 0.027]. PD without intraperitoneal drainage was associated with a higher incidence of gastroparesis, intra-abdominal fluid collection, intra-abdominal abscess (10% vs 25%, P = 0.027), severe (≥grade 2) diarrhea, need for a postoperative percutaneous drain, and a prolonged length of stay. The Data Safety Monitoring Board stopped the study early because of an increase in mortality from 3% to 12% in the patients undergoing PD without intraperitoneal drainage.

Conclusions: This study provides level 1 data, suggesting that elimination of intraperitoneal drainage in all cases of PD increases the frequency and severity of complications.

See also: Van Buren G 2nd, Fisher WE. Pancreaticoduodenectomy Without Drains: Interpretation of the Evidence. Ann Surg. 2016 Feb;263(2):e20-1.

Continue reading

Pancreaticoduodenectomy in patients with previous Roux-en-Y gastric bypass

Shah MM, Martin BM, Stetler JL, Patel AD, Davis SS, Sarmiento JM, Lin E. Reconstruction Options for Pancreaticoduodenectomy in Patients with Prior Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass. J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech A. 2017 Nov;27(11):1185-1191.

Full-text for Emory users.

“In summary, of the 13 patients that have been described in the literature who underwent PD after RYGB, 7 (54%) of these patients underwent reconstruction, similar to our preferred approach (Fig. 2), which involved remnant gastrectomy with the BP limb forming the BP anastomoses. Overall, 8 (61.5%) of the 13 patients had remnant gastrectomy. Five patients did not have a remnant gastrectomy. There are 10 patients in the literature where the surgeon attempted resecting the gastric remnant, and 8 (80%) of these patients had successful remnant gastrectomy. However, based on the published literature, this is clearly a small sampling of what might have actually been performed. We have had three such patients where we performed PD in patients with prior RYGB (similar to Fig. 2a). In all patients, we had adequate BP limb length for the anastomoses. The patients had early recovery of bowel function and were discharged from the hospital on or before postoperative day 5 without any significant complications. Continue reading

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]

Continue reading