Transduodenal pancreatic juice drainage for preventing pancreatic fistula formation after distal pancreatectomy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Pancreatic fistula is the most common and troublesome complication after distal pancreatectomy (DP). We developed a new surgical technique, transduodenal pancreatic juice drainage (TDPD), for preventing pancreatic fistulaformation after DP, and evaluated the efficacy of this procedure. METHODOLOGY: We retrospectively studied 40 patients who underwent DP. These patients were divided into 2 groups:the group that underwent conventional DP without pancreatic stent insertion (CDP group) (n=25) and the group that underwent DP with TDPD (TDPD group) (n=15). A pancreatic stent was inserted distally into the main pancreatic duct from the papilla of Vatervia aduodenostomy, and continuous suction drainage was applied. RESULTS: This procedure was performed on 15 patients, grade-A postoperativepancreatic fistula (POPF) was revealed in 1 patient (6.7%). However none of them developed clinical POPF. CONCLUSIONS: We consider our TDPD technique to be effective for preventing POPF in patients who have undergone DP.