Assessment of complications according to the Clavien-Dindo classification after distal pancreatectomy

The absence of a definition and a widely accepted ranking system to classify surgical complications has hampered proper interpretation of the surgical outcome.

Sixty-one patients undergoing distal pancreatectomy.

The complications were classified according to the Clavien-Dindo classification; each grade was evaluated regarding the length of the postoperative stay and was compared to the most important complications.

Thirty (49.2%) patients had no complications; out of the thirty-one (50.8%) patients with complications, 9 (14.5%) had grade I, 15 (24.6%) had grade II, 6 (9.8%) had grade III, and 1 (1.6%) had grade IV. There were no postoperative deaths (grade V). A progressive increase in the length of hospitalization from patients with no complications to those having grade IV (P < 0.001) was noted. Postoperative pancreatic fistula and postpancreatectomy hemorrhage rates did not significantly increase from Clavien-Dindo grade I to grade IV (P = 0.118 and P = 0.226, respectively). The severity of a postpancreatectomy hemorrhage, instead, was positively related to the grade of the Clavien-Dindo classification (P = 0.049) while postoperative pancreatic fistula resulted near the significant value (P = 0.058).

The Clavien-Dindo classification is a simple way of reporting all complications following distal pancreatectomy. It allows us to distinguish a normal postoperative course from any deviation and the severity of complications and it may be useful for comparing postoperative morbidity between different pancreatic centers.