Intra-abdominal drainage following pancreatic resection:A systematic review

AIM: To study all the aspects of drain management in pancreatic surgery.METHODS: We conducted a systematic review according to the PRISMA guidelines. We searched the Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials,EMBASE,Web of Science,and Pub Med(MEDLINE) for relevant articles on drain management in pancreatic surgery. The reference lists of relevant studies were screened to retrieve any further studies. We included all articles that reported clinical studies on human subjects with elective pancreatic resection and that compared various strategies of intra-abdominal drain management,such as drain vs no drain,selective drain use,early vs late drain extraction,and the use of different types of drains. RESULTS: A total of 19 studies concerned with drain management in pancreatic surgery involving 4194 patients were selected for this systematic review. We included studies analyzing the outcomes of pancreatic resection with and without intra-abdominal drains,studies comparing early vs late drain removal and studies analyzing different types of drains. The majority of the studies reporting equal or superior results for pancreatic resection without drains were retrospective and observational with significant selection bias. One recent randomized trial reported higher postoperative morbidity and mortality with routine omission of intraabdominal drains. With respect to the timing of drain removal,all of the included studies reported superior results with early drain removal. Regarding the varioustypes of drains,there is insufficient evidence to determine which type of drain is more suitable following pancreatic resection. CONCLUSION: The prophylactic use of drains remains controversial. When drains are used,early removal is recommended. Further trials comparing types of drains are ongoing.

Different clinical presentations of metachronous pulmonary metastases after resection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Retrospective study and review of the literature

AIM To analyze pancreatic cancer patients who developed metachronous pulmonary metastases(MPM) as a first site of recurrence after the curative-intent surgery.METHODS One-hundred-fifty-nine consecutive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC) patients who underwent radical pancreatic surgery between 2006 and 2013 were included in this retrospective analysis. The clinical data including age, sex, grade, primary tumor location, p TNM stage, lymph node infiltration, microangioinvasion, perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion, the therapy administered, and follow-up were all obtained from medical records. Further analysis covered only patients with metachronous metastases. Clinical and histopathological data(age, sex, grade, primary tumor location, p TNM stage, lymph node infiltration, microangioinvasion, perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion, the therapy administered and follow-up) of patients with metachronous non-pulmonary metastases and patients with metachronous pulmonary metastases were statistically assessed. Disease-free survival(DFS) from pancreas resection until metastases onset and overall survival(OS) were calculated. Wilcoxon test, χ~2 test and survival functions computed by the KaplanMeier method were used. Statistical significance was evaluated by the log-rank test using SPSS. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.RESULTS Metachronous pulmonary metastases were observed in 20(16.9%) and were operable in 3(2.5%) of PDAC patients after a prior curative-intent surgery. Patients with isolated pulmonary metastases(oligometastases and multiple metastases) had estimated prior DFS and OS of 35.4 and 81.4 mo, respectively, and those with metachronous pulmonary metastases accompanied by other metastases had prior DFS and OS of 17.3 and 23.4 mo, respectively. Patients with non-pulmonary metastases had prior DFS and OS of 9.4 and 15.8 mo, respectively. Different clinical scenarios according to the presentation of MPM were observed and patients could be divided to three subgroups with different prognosis which could be used for the selection of treatment strategy: isolated pulmonary oligometastases, isolated multiple pulmonary metastases and pulmonary metastases accompanied by other metastases.CONCLUSION Surgery should be considered for all patients with isolated pulmonary oligometastases, but the risk of intervention has to be individually weighted for each patient.