Surgical management of the pancreatic stump following pancreato-duodenectomy

Pancreato-duodenectomy (PD) is the treatment of choice for periampullary tumors, and currently, indications have been extended to benign disease, including symptomatic chronic pancreatitis, paraduodenal pancreatitis, and benign periampullary tumors that are not amenable to conservative surgery. In spite of a significant decrease in mortality in high volume centers over the last three decades (from>20% in the 1980s to<5% today), morbidity remains high, ranging from 30% to 50%. The most common complications are related to the pancreatic remnant, such as postoperative pancreatic fistula, anastomotic dehiscence, abscess, and hemorrhage, and are among the highest of all surgical complications following intra-abdominal gastro-intestinal anastomoses. Moreover, pancreatico-enteric anastomotic breakdown remains a life-threatening complication. For these reasons, the management of the pancreatic stump following resection is still one of the most hotly debated issues in digestive surgery; more than 80 different methods of pancreatico-enteric reconstructions having been described, and no gold standard has yet been defined. In this review, we analyzed the current trends in the surgical management of the pancreatic remnant after PD.