Stented Pancreatico-duodenectomy: Does it lead to decreased pancreatic fistula rates? A prospective randomized study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare clinically relevant pancreatic fistula rates in patients with stented versus non-stented pancreatico-jejunostomies.

METHODS: The randomised comparative clinical trial was conducted at Civil Hospital, Karachi, from September 2009 to August 2015, and comprised patients presenting to the Surgical Unit 4 with a diagnosis of resectable periampullary carcinoma, carcinoma of head of pancreas, duodenal carcinoma involving the second part, and distal cholangiocarcinomas. Pancreatic fistula or leakage was defined as amylase-rich fluid lasting over 5 days, collected from the peripancreatic drains on day 1, 3 and 7 postoperatively, and the rate of clinically relevant fistulas was taken as primary study endpoint.

RESULTS: There were 102 patients with a male to female ratio of 2.4:1. The overall mean age was 53.16±12.11 years (range: 30-80 years). Of the total, 53(51.9%) patients had pancreatic duct stent and 49(48%) did not. Clinically relevant pancreatic leak was seen in 13(12.7%) patients of whom 8(61.5%) were stented (p=0.46), 9(69.2%) patients had soft pancreatic texture (p=0.54) and 7(53.8%) had pancreatic duct <3mm (p=0.11).

CONCLUSIONS: Pancreatic fistula rates between stented and non-stented anastomosis did not show any significant difference.