Local complications following pancreatic trauma

BackgroundMajor trauma to the pancreas is uncommon, but associated with significant overall morbidity and mortality. A vast majority of these adverse outcomes can be attributed to the presences of associated injuries. Among those patients who survive the initial injury, however, the subsequent development of pancreas-related complications represents a significant source of adverse outcomes.Methods and resultsA total of 257 patients admitted from January 1996 to April 2007 were identified from the trauma registry database at our institution. One hundred and eighty-three patients surviving more than 48 h after admission were selected for analysis. These patients were grouped according to the surgical management utilised to address their pancreatic injuries: either resection or operative drainage. After exclusion of patients with associated vascular injuries, those undergoing drainage had lower rate of associated hollow viscus injuries (51.9% vs. 69.9%; p = 0.016) and lower rates of associated solid organ injuries (44.2% vs. 70.9%; p ≤ 0.001). Patients undergoing drainage were noted to have a higher incidence of pseudocyst formation (19.5% vs. 9.0%; OR: 2.47, 95% CI, 0.92–6.67; p = 0.068), but lower hospital lengths of stay (18.7 ± 18.5 vs. 33.8 ± 63.5; p = 0.001). No difference in mortality was noted between the two populations (5.7% vs. 3.0%; p = 0.700). After multivariate analysis pseudocyst formation was the only complication that proved different between the two management groups, with patients undergoing operative drainage more commonly developing this adverse sequela (OR: 2.93, 95% CI, 1.02–8.36; p = 0.041).ConclusionsIn the absence of vascular injury, the choice of surgical management did not affect adjusted mortality or the overall occurrence of pancreas-related complications. Individuals treated with operative drainage alone, however, were significantly more likely to develop a post-operative pseudocyst than their resectional counterparts.