Preoperative pancreatic duct stenting in patients undergoing laparoscopic pancreatic surgery – a preliminary report

Laparoscopic surgery is becoming an approved technique in pancreatic surgery. It offers some advantages over an open approach due to shorter hospital stay and decreased complication rate. Regardless the technique the most significant problem of pancreatic surgery is postoperative pancreatic fistula. There are numerous methods attempted at reduction of its incidence. One of the possibilities is preoperative pancreatic duct stenting. It aims at decreasing the pressure in the pancreatic duct, which is supposed to facilitate pancreatic juice flow to the duodenum. The aim of the study was to determine the role of preoperative pancreatic duct stenting in pancreatic surgery.

Nineteen patients undergoing laparoscopic pancreatic resection were enrolled into the study. Prior to the surgery, all of the patients were submitted for the Endoscopic Retrograde Choleangiopancreatography (ERCP) with pancreatic duct stenting. Following the subsequent laparoscopic pancreatic resection, all patients were monitored to detect the pancreatic fistula appearance. The pancreatic stent was removed 6-8 weeks after the surgery.

With an exception of two patients, all other patients underwent successful ERCP with pancreatic duct stenting before the surgery. In one case the placement of the prosthesis failed due to a tortuous pancreatic duct. Five patients had an episode of acute pancreatitis including two severe courses as a complication of preoperative ERCP. One of the patient died due to severe GI bleeding 2 weeks after stenting. Among the procedures there were 15 distal pancreatectomies, two enucleations of the tumor localized in the uncinate process and in the body of the pancreas and one central pancreatectomy. The median time of surgery duration was 186 minutes (90-300; ±56). No conversions to an open approach were necessary. Likewise, there was neither any major complications reported in a postoperative course nor incidence of pancreatic fistula in any of the patients undergoing surgery.

Preoperative pancreatic duct stenting can decrease the incidence of pancreatic fistula. However, a number of serious complications exceed the potential benefit of this method.