Pancreaticogastrostomy Decreased Relaparotomy Caused by Pancreatic Fistula After Pancreaticoduodenectomy Compared With Pancreaticojejunostomy

HYPOTHESIS Pancreaticogastrostomy (PG) is associated with a lower relaparotomy rate following pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) than pancreaticojejunostomy (PJ). DESIGN Retrospective clinical trial. SETTING Department of digestive surgery and transplantation. PATIENTS Between 1987 and 2001, 250 consecutive patients underwent PD in our institution. Among them, 83 patients underwent PJ and 167, PG. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Preoperative clinicopathological features, intraoperative parameters, in-hospital mortality, postoperative morbidity, pancreatic fistula (PF), relaparotomy rates, and length of hospital stay were analyzed and compared between 2 reconstructive methods, PJ and PG, after PD. RESULTS The morbidity rate, including PF, was lower in the PG group (38.3%) than in the PJ group (53.0%; P = .02). The mortality rate did not differ between the PG group (2.9%) and PJ group (2.4%). Conversely, the incidence of PF and the mean ± SD length of hospital stay were significantly lower in the PG group (2.3% and 17.2 ± 7.7 days) than in the PJ group (20.4% and 23.3 ± 11.7 days; P