Impact of biliary drainage prior to pancreatectomy

There is still a lack of clarity about the benefits of preoperative biliary drainage (PBD), which was introduced to improve the perioperative outcome in patients with obstructive jaundice caused by a periampullary tumour. The aim of this study was to determine whether operative and postoperative complications increase in patients undergoing PBD during pancreatoduodenectomy (PD).

Retrospective examination was made of patients who underwent PBD for a periampullary tumour in our hospital between 2006 and 2014. From these, the patients were identified who had PBD with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and these patients were further separated into two groups, as one group of patients with plastic stents and the other group of patients with metallic stents. Patients with pancreas head cancer were also separated into two groups as those who were and were not applied with PBD. The preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative characteristics of the patients were evaluated.

A total of 123 patients were retrospectively reviewed. Biliary stent placement with PBD was applied to 48 patients, of whom 31 had metallic stents and 17 had plastic stents. In general, there was no difference between the PBD and the non-PBD groups in respect of the preoperative, operative and postoperative results. When patients with tumour of the pancreas head only were examined, the rate of wound infection was higher in the PBD group and there was no difference in the other parameters. Moreover, there was no difference between the patients with metallic stents and those with plastic stents in respect of outcomes.

With the exception of wound site infection, although no difference was observed between the PBD and the non-PBD groups based on intraoperative and postoperative complications, because of the distinctive inherent complications of PBD it is essential to manage such patients properly and to carefully select the patients for the PBD procedure.