ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Postoperative pancreatic fistulas are the most frequent major complications after pancreatoduodenectomy. The soft pancreatic texture is a critical, independent risk factor for postoperative pancreatic fistulas after pancreatoduodenectomy. The current gold standard for postoperative pancreatic fistula risk evaluation consists of the surgeon's intraoperative palpation of the pancreatic texture and, thus, lacks objectivity. In this prospective study, we used ultrasound-based shear-wave elastography, image data analysis, and a fistula risk score calculator to correlate the stiffness of pancreatic tissue with the occurrence of clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistulas. METHODS: We included 100 patients with pancreatic pathologies (71% pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma) and 100 healthy individuals who were preoperatively assessed via real-time tissue ultrasound-based shear-wave elastography on a Philips EPIQ 7 ultrasound device and had pancreatic parenchyma histologically evaluated with manually stained images. RESULTS: We found a significant difference in the mean elasticity between the soft (1.22 m/s) and the hard pancreas group (2.10 m/s; P < .0001). The mean elasticity significantly correlated with the pancreatic fibrosis rate and the appearance of a postoperative pancreatic fistula after pancreatoduodenectomy. Low elasticity (≤1.2 m/s, mean) correlated with soft and high elasticity (>2.0 m/s, mean) with hard pancreatic parenchyma, as assessed by pathologic evaluation. Multivariate analysis revealed a mean elasticity of <1.3 m/s as a significant cut-off predictor for clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistulas (P = .003; Youden-Index = 0.6945). CONCLUSION: Preoperative ultrasound-based shear-wave elastography is a feasible and objective clinical diagnostic modality in evaluating pancreatic tissue stiffness. A mean pancreatic elasticity of <1.3 m/s was a significant independent risk predictor of clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistulas after pancreatoduodenectomy.
