Early Drain Removal Versus Standard Drain Management After Distal Pancreatectomy (Early-Dist)

Summary

Main indications for distal pancreatectomy (DP) are pancreatic body and tail tumors including ductal adenocarcinoma, neuroendocrine tumors, and cystic neoplasms. Despite a less invasive operation with lower morbidity compared to pancreatic head surgery, DP is burdened by the occurrence of clinically-relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF) in a significant proportion of patients.

Drain fluid amylase (DFA) on POD 1 (postoperative day 1) \> 2,000 U/L appears as the best performing threshold to predict the occurrence of CR-POPF after distal pancreatectomy. Although there is preliminary evidence that early drain removal in the subgroup of patients with DFA1 \< 2,000 U/L may reduce POPF, no prospective study has yet evaluated the impact of an early drain removal strategy compared to standard management.

The research question of this study is to evaluate to what extent early postoperative drain removal according to a validated DFA1 impact on clinically-relevant POPF rate after distal pancreatectomy in comparison to standard drain management. The primary hypothesis is that, early drain removal will result in a reduced proportion of patients experiencing grade B-C POPF according to ISGPS definition.

The proposed study is a two-group, assessor-blind, randomized trial. Participants will be randomly assigned with a 1:1 ratio into one of two groups: (1) standard drain management or (2) early drain removal strategy.

In this study adults (\>18 years) patients with pancreatic body or tail diseases planned for distal pancreatectomy with or without splenectomy will be enrolled.The primary outcome is the POPF at 90 days after surgery, defined as grade B or C POPF according to ISGPS definition.

Participants will be asked to complete some questionnaires in order to assess their general health status, and they will be evaluated at time of hospital admission, at 15 days, at 30 days after surgery (via telephone follow-up), and at 90 days after surgery (via telephone follow-up).

Conditions

• Pancreas Disease
• Complication,Postoperative
• PROMs
• Pancreatic Fistula

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Early drain removal

Patients randomized to the experimental group, will have an early drain removal if DFA on POD1 is lower than 2000 U/L and/or the drain fluid does not appear "sinister" (i.e. varying from dark brown to greenish fluid to milky water to clear "spring water" pancreatic juice like appearance) according to the clinical team. If DFA is greater than 2000 U/L, the drain will be maintained in place. If the sample on POD1 DFA is not available (e.g. drainage fluid is viscous and amylase value cannot be evaluated) or the sample could not be analyzed DFA will be evaluated on POD2, and drain removal will be considered if DFA is lower than 2000 U/L. If DFA on POD 3 is lower than 300 U/L, that is 3-fold the upper limit of normal serum amylase value, and/or the drain fluid does not appear "sinister" according to the clinical team, the drain will be removed. Otherwise, the drain will be kept in place and the patient will then follow standard postoperative drain management.

PROCEDURE

Standard drain removal

Patients randomized to this group will receive the current standard of care, thus the drain will be maintained at least until postoperative day 5. If DFA on POD 5 is lower than 3-fold the upper limit of normal serum amylase value, and/or the drain fluid does not appear "sinister" (i.e. varying from dark brown to greenish fluid to milky water to clear "spring water" pancreatic juice like appearance) according to the clinical team, the drain will be removed. If the drain is maintained in place beyond POD 5, it will be removed inhospital or after discharge when the daily amount is lower than 10 ml and there are no signs of ongoing infection

Sponsors & Collaborators

• IRCCS San Raffaele

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Massimo Falconi, Professor · Ospedale San Raffaele IRCCS

• Stefano Partelli, Investigator · Ospedale San Raffaele IRCCS

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-10-13

Primary Completion

2023-09-30

Completion

2023-10-30

Countries

• Italy

Study Locations