Feeding jejunostomy during Whipple is associated with increased morbidity

BackgroundPlacement of a feeding jejunostomy tube (FJ) is often performed during pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). Few studies, however, have sought to determine whether such placement affects postoperative outcomes after PD.Materials and methodsThis is a retrospective analysis of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database to determine the 30-d-postoperative mortality rate, major complication rate, and overall complication rate of jejunostomy tube placement at the time of PD. Univariate and multivariate comparison of postoperative outcomes between patients with and without FJ placement during PD was performed on a total of 4930 patients.ResultsThirty-day-postoperative mortality did not differ between the two groups (4.0% for patients with FJ versus 2.7% without, P = 0.13), whereas overall morbidity (43.3% with FJ versus 34.6% without, P < 0.0001) and serious morbidity (29.5% with FJ versus 22.8% without, P < 0.0001) were significantly higher in patients undergoing FJ placement during PD. The specific complications that occurred more frequently in FJ patients than patients without FJ included deep space surgical site infection, pneumonia, unplanned reintubation, acute renal failure, and sepsis.ConclusionAlthough FJ placement during PD is considered to be routine at many institutions, our analysis of data from NSQIP suggest that FJ placement may be associated with increased postoperative morbidity.