ABSTRACT
Objective To study the reasons for conversion to laparotomy in laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD).Methods Of the 74 patients who underwent LPD in Yi Jishan Hospital,Wan Nan Medical College from May 2012 to Dec 2016,7 patients were converted to laparotomy.The clinical and operative data of the 7 patients were reviewed.Results There were 6 males and 1 female.The age ranged was 51 to 66 years.The pathologies included tumor of pancreatic head in 5 patients,chronic inflammation of pancreas in 1 patient and duodenum papilla cancer in 1 patient.The reasons for conversion were:uncontrollable bleeding in 4 patients with superior mesenteric vein injury in 1 patient,portal vein injury in 1 patient and first jejunal vein injury in 2 patients,respectively.The bleeding was controlled successfully after laparotomy in all the 4 patients.The conversion in the remaining 3 patients were due to difficulty in the operative procedures which resulted from severe adhesions between the tumor and the major vessels.There were 2 patients who had invasion of the SMV by tumor.They underwent vascular resection after laparotomy.The remaining patient had chronic inflammation and the lesion was resected successfully after careful dissection.Of the 7 patients,1 patient developed pancreatic fistula,1 patient developed delayed gastric emptying and 1 patient developed both bile leakage and delayed gastric emptying.They were all treated conservatively.There was no peri-operative death in the study.Conclusion Uncontrollable bleeding and severe adhesions between the lesion and major vessels were the major reasons in LPD for conversion to laparotomy.