ABSTRACT
Objective To compare the effect of pancreatic duct stent internal versus external drainage in the prevention of postoperative complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy through the method of Meta analysis.Methods PubMed,Embase and the Cochrane Library,were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning pancreatic duct stent in the prevention of postoperative complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy.All these databases were searched from their establishment to March 31,2015.The data was reviewed and extracted by two investigators independently.Then,the Cochrane network RevMan 5.3 software was used for statistic analysis.Results As a result,this meta analysis has got 3 RCTs,including 362 participants.The outcomes in our study design were classified as major and minor one.The former was the outcomes of the major postoperative complications,like postoperative pancreatic fistula and delayed gastric emptying.The minor outcome were postoperative morbidity,mortality and intestinal obstruction.The results of meta analysis were:(1) Postoperative total pancreatic fistula rate (A/B/C):three studies showed a statistic difference between the internal and external drainage groups (OR =0.59,95％CI:0.36-0.97,P =0.04).(2) Postoperative pancreatic fistula rate (B/C):three studies showed a statistic difference between the internal and external drainage groups (OR =0.44,95％ CI:0.20-0.97,P =0.04).(3) Postoperative incidence rate of delayed gastric emptying:three studies showed a certain statistic difference between the internal and external drainage groups (OR =0.42,95 ％ CI:0.23-0.79,P =0.007).(4) Post-operative incidence rate of total mortality:three studies showed no certain statistic difference between the internal and external drainage groups (OR =0.81,95 ％ CI:0.23-2.86,P =0.74).(5) As for the postoperative incidence rate of total complications and intestinal obstruction,the heterogeneity was bigger than 50％.So we made an analysis of the cause of heterogeneity.We deduced that it may be caused by the different and complicated perioperative management.Then,we used the random effect model rather than the fixed effect model to make a quantitative analysis.No statistical difference was found eventually in both this two marks.Conclusions By comparing the outcomes in both internal and external drainage groups,we found pancreatic duct stent external drainage could effectively decrease the incidence rate of postoperative pancreatic fistula rate and delayed gastric emptying.But when the limit studies and sample size considered,this conclusion still need to be certificated with more high-quality clinical research.