Background: One of the most severe pancreatic surgery complications is post-pancreatectomy hemorrhage (PPH). This study's aim was to evaluate the efficacy of flooring the major vessels with falciform ligament in preventing PPH after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD).
Methods: This study was a retrospective review of 500 consecutive patients who underwent PD between Jan 2010 and Dec 2019 at Hiroshima University. Morbidities, including postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) or PPH and 90-day mortality, were analyzed. The study cohort was divided into two groups based on the time of surgery (2010-2016 and 2017-2019), i.e., before and after implementation of falciform ligament flooring method. The patient characteristics, operative parameters, clinicopathological factors, morbidity, and mortality were compared between the two periods.
Results: Morbidity and mortality rates in the entire cohort were 21% and 1.4%, respectively. The incidence of Grade B/C POPF and PPH was 9.0% and 3.8%, respectively. There was no significant difference between the two periods with respect to Grade B/C POPF, morbidity rate, and mortality rate; however, the rate of Grade B/C PPH significantly decreased from 5.2 to 1.6% p = .027. On multivariate analysis, the absence of the falciform ligament flooring method was an independent PPH risk factor p = .003.
Conclusions: Falciform ligament flooring method may help decrease the incidence of PPH after PD.