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Today, minimally invasive surgery is being performed safely and effectively to treat a range of conditions. Advantages of minimally invasive techniques include short hospital stays, early return to work, and reduced scar formation (1, 2). In comparison to other fields of surgery, minimally invasive surgical interventions are lacking in the field of pancreatic surgery. This lack of innovation may be due to the anatomical location of pancreas, difficulties in surgical technique, and concerns about poor oncological outcomes.
The first laparoscopic distal pancreatic surgery was performed by Gagner and Pomp (3) in 1996. Since that time, additional laparoscopic approaches for pancreatic pathologies have emerged. Several studies have emphasized the advantages of laparoscopic approaches over open surgery, particularly with regard to short-term outcomes (4, 5). Laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy is increasingly used in the surgical treatment of corpus and distal pancreatic tumors. Due to concerns of worsening oncological outcomes, laparoscopic pancreatectomy is generally performed in benign disease (6). Nonetheless, this procedure is performed in select malignant cases in conjunction with splenectomy (7, 8).
In this study, patients who underwent laparoscopic or open distal pancreatectomy for benign or malignant causes were evaluated in terms of tumor characteristics and perioperative outcomes.
Material and Methods
In this study, we retrospectively reviewed data from a total of 27 distal pancreatectomy cases performed for benign or malignant causes in the General Surgery Department between January 2013 and December 2015 by scanning the archived data forms. Patients were divided into two groups based on whether the operation technique was laparoscopic or open surgery (Group 1: open surgery and Group 2: laparoscopic surgery). Cases where the operation was initiated as laparoscopic surgery but required conversion to open surgery were evaluated separately. Groups were compared according to the demographic characteristics of patients, operation type (laparoscopic or open, with splenectomy or spleen preservation), operation time, surgical site infection (superficial, deep wound infection, or intra-abdominal abscess), pancreatic fistula development, and histopathological examination results. The rate of conversion to open surgery was determined. Pancreatic fistulae were evaluated according to the International Study Group of Pancreatic Fistula classification established by Bassi et al (9). This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards set out in the Helsinki Declaration. Informed consent was taken from all patients.
Statistical Analysis
Data...