Stapler sizes optimized for pancreatic thickness can reduce pancreatic fistula incidence after distal pancreatectomy

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to identify the optimum-sized stapler cartridges for reducing the incidence of postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) after distal pancreatectomy (DP). Methods The authors retrospectively analyzed 101 patients who underwent DP with a triple-row stapler to identify the clinicopathological factors that strongly influence POPF after DP. The height difference (HD) was defined as the difference between the pancreatic thickness and the height of the closed stapler. Results POPF occurred in 58 (57%) patients. A multivariate analysis identified HD and pancreatic thickness as independent risk factors for the occurrence of POPF after DP. Akaike’s information criterion for identifying the risk factors was more favorable for HD (115.18) than for pancreatic thickness (118.02). The incidence of POPF was significantly lower (29%) in patients with an HD between 6 and 12 mm than in the other two groups (