Perioperative Management of Pancreaticoduodenectomy: Avoiding Admission to the Intensive Care Unit.

INTRODUCTION: With the advancement in surgical expertise at high-volume centers and advances in perioperative management, pancreaticoduodenectomy is becoming safer and remains the gold standard for treating periampullary pathologies. We describe our experience in optimizing perioperative management in order to avoid admission to the intensive care unit and improve outcomes. METHOD: Retrospective data were collected on 370 surgical patients who underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy between the years 1994 and 2016. RESULTS: Of the 370 patients, 200 operated between 2009 and 2016 did not require intensive care admission, blood transfusion, or central line insertion. The results were compared between different time intervals: before the year 1998, between the years 1998 and 2008, and between the years 2009 and 2016. The median blood loss dropped from 800 to 400 to 300 mL, respectively. The median operative time also dropped from 360 to 335 to 215 min, respectively. In addition, the median length of hospital stay decreased from 25 to 16 to 7 days, respectively. CONCLUSION: With the centralization of pancreaticoduodenectomy in high-volume centers and with specialized surgeons performing the surgery, there is a significant decrease in the onset of postoperative complications with a lesser need for blood transfusions and, subsequently, better recovery of patients without the need for intensive care unit admission.

Fibroscan and low-density lipoprotein as determinants of severe liver fibrosis in diabetic patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

BACKGROUND: Fibroscan is an effective and noninvasive tool to quantify fibrosis and steatosis in liver diseases including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Type-2-diabetes is a known risk factor for worse prognosis in NAFLD. In this study, we compare liver status in NAFDL diabetic and nondiabetic patients, identify potential risk factors, and determine the usefulness of Fibroscan in this population. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The charts of all patients with NAFLD who underwent Fibroscan at our institution were reviewed. Fibroscan results, demographics, and clinical data were collected and analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Of the 248 NAFLD patients, 73 (29.4%) were diabetic and 175 (70.6%) were nondiabetic. As detected by the NAFLD' liver stiffness measure, 35 (47.94%) diabetic patients had severe liver fibrosis (F4) in contrast to only 46 (26.3%) nondiabetics. Diabetic patients also presented more with hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, and chronic kidney disease. Liver steatosis, liver function tests, and noninvasive scores did not vary significantly between the two groups, except for γ-glutamyltransferase, prothrombin time-international normalized ratio, and BMI-alanine aminotransferase ratio-diabetes score. Diabetic patients had significantly lower high-density lipoproteins and low-density lipoproteins. CONCLUSION: Fibroscan results and low-density lipoprotein are potential diagnostic factors of liver fibrosis in diabetic patients with NAFLD. Further studies are necessary to verify liver fibrosis diagnostic tools and prognostic and genetic markers in diabetic patients.