Prophylactic gastrojejunostomy for unresectable periampullary carcinoma

The role of prophylactic gastrojejunostomy in patients with unresectable periampullary cancer is controversial.

To determine whether prophylactic gastrojejunostomy should be performed routinely in patients with unresectable periampullary cancer.

We searched the Cochrane Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic Diseases Group Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2010, issue 3), MEDLINE, EMBASE and Science Citation Index Expanded until April 2010.

We included randomised controlled trials comparing prophylactic gastrojejunostomy versus no gastrojejunostomy in patients with unresectable periampullary cancer (irrespective of language or publication status).

Two authors independently assessed trials for inclusion and independently extracted data. We analysed data with both the fixed-effect and the random-effects models using Review Manager (RevMan). We calculated the hazard ratio (HR), risk ratio (RR), or mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) based on an intention-to-treat or available case analysis.

We identified two trials (of high risk of bias) involving 152 patients randomised to gastrojejunostomy (80 patients) and no gastrojejunostomy (72 patients). In both trials, patients were found to be unresectable during exploratory laparotomy. Most of the patients also underwent biliary-enteric drainage. There was no evidence of difference in the overall survival (HR 1.02; 95% CI 0.84 to 1.25), peri-operative mortality or morbidity, quality of life, or hospital stay (MD 0.97 days; 95%CI -0.18 to 2.12) between the two groups. The proportion of patients who developed long term gastric outlet obstruction was significantly lower in the prophylactic gastrojejunostomy group (2/80; 2.5%) compared with no gastrojejunostomy group (20/72; 27.8%) (RR 0.10; 95%CI 0.03 to 0.37). The operating time was significantly longer in the gastrojejunostomy group compared with no gastrojejunostomy group (MD 45.00 minutes; 95%CI 21.39 to 68.61).

Routine prophylactic gastrojejunostomy is indicated in patients with unresectable periampullary cancer undergoing exploratory laparotomy (with or without hepaticojejunostomy).