A new meta-analysis has confirmed that doing a distal pancreatectomy laparoscopically reduces the morbidity. The study has been published in Annals of surgery June 2012 issue.
For this metanalysis, Dr Raghunandan et al analysed 18 published studies including 1814 patients comparing laproscopic distal pancreatectomy and open surgery.
they found that overall complications were significantly lower in the laparoscopic group (33.9% vs 44.2%).
Surgical site infection rate was four times less. No significant difference was found in operative time, incidence of postoperative pancreatic fistula, and mortality.
The authors concluded that laproscopic distal pancreatectomy results in lesser blood loss and reduces length of hospital stay. The rate of margin positivity [Presence of cancer cells in the removed tissue margins] was comparable to the open technique.
The authors suggested that Laparoscopic Distal Pancreatectomy technique is a reasonable approach in selected cancer patients.
Source
Annals of Surgery: June 2012 - Volume 255 - Issue 6 - p 1048–1059 doi: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e318251ee09
For Further Knowledge
A video on distal pancreatectomy.
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