RESUMEN
Commercially available intra-abdominal drains such as Penrose drain or closed suction drain have some demerits in either functional reliability of prolonged duration or easiness of bedside management. To cope with these demerits, we devised a Suction-type Cigarette Drain (SCD) and evaluated its usefulness. We made multiple side-holes at a silastic Penrose drain and a silastic tube. These two tubes were integrated as like a conventional cigarette drain. The outside portion of SCD was tightly tied to prevent air leak and the inner drainage tube was connected to a suction bag. SCD was applied to 26 cases of various hepatopancreatobiliary operations including pancreatoduodenectomy (n=10), distal pancreatectomy (n=4), hepatic posterior segmentectomy (n=3), partial cholecystectomy (n=7), and emergent laparotomy after liver transplantation (n=2). There was no significant fluid collection around the SCD in follow-up computed tomogram of all patients. All SCD remained functioning well at the time of removal (mean 13 days). There was no skin irritation, with the exception of 1 patient. Our experience supports that SCD is highly reliable and acceptably convenient for clinical use. We think that this type of intra-abdominal drainage deserves applying to various hepatopancreatobiliary operations.