Chen's U-Suture Technique for Pancreaticojejunostomy Following Pancreaticoduodenectomy

Overview

To date, pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is the only recognized potentially curative therapy for malignant neoplasms located in the peri-ampullary region, and is increasingly being used for the treatment of cancer through the resection of the premalignant precursors for invasive carcinomas.Postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) is one of the most common complications associated with substantial clinical implications following PD, which significantly affects mortality rate, length of hospital stay, and overall hospital costs. Therefore, the prevention of POPF has always been a high priority for our group as well as other international surgical groups. In 1995, investigators' group established the Chen's U-stitch approach, which was a new technique of end-to-end invaginated pancreaticojejunostomy with transpancreatic transverse U-sutures after PD, and the preliminary results were quite encouraging at that time. Thus, investigators intend to conduct a multicentre, randomized, parallel-group controlled, clinical trial to evaluate the effect and safety of the new technique.

This is a multicentre, randomized, parallel-group controlled, clinical trial to evaluate the effect and safety of Chen's U-Suture technique for pancreaticojejunostomy following pancreaticoduodenectomy. Investigators plan to enroll 960 patients in this study and eligible patients will be randomly divided into two groups. One group will use Chen's U-Suture technique and other group will use classic duct-to-mucosa technique. All patients will be followed up for 3 month after surgery, and primary outcome is POPF, other outcome such as duration of operation, grade of POPF, morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay, reoperation rate, postoperative pancreatic function and postoperative incidence of chronic pancreatic diseases.