Different reconstruction techniques after pancreatoduodenectomy do not affect clinical and patient reported outcomes

Purpose: To evaluate the quality of life in a 2-year follow-up study in consecutive subjects who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy with different reconstruction techniques: pancreaticojejunostomy or pancreaticogastrostomy. Patients/methods: One hundred and ninety-seven consecutive patients were studied: 164 (83.2%) had malignant and 33 (16.8%) had benign disease. The EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire was administered at 5 different time points for evaluation: before surgery, and 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after discharge. Results: Pancreaticojejunostomy was performed in 189 patients (95.9%) and pancreaticogastrostomy in 8 patients (4.1%). In the follow-up evaluation, the quality of life significantly improved using the various surgical approaches; improvement over time was not significantly different among the various reconstruction techniques. Conclusions: In clinical practice, different surgical reconstruction techniques are equally effective in improving the quality of life after pancreaticoduodenectomy. (C) 2014 Medical University of Bialystok. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved.