Publication:

Surgical management of traumatic pancreatic injuries and their consequences.

Background Management of pancreatic trauma remains challenging due to difficulty in diagnosis and complexity of surgical interventions. In Egypt, reports on pancreatic trauma are scarce.

Methods Medical records of adult patients with pancreatic trauma who were admitted at Sohag University Hospital (2012-2019) were retrospectively studied. Patients were categorized into group A of non-operative management (NOM), group B which required upfront exploratory laparotomy due to hemodynamic instability and group C in which surgical management was implemented after thorough preoperative assessment. Pancreatic injuries were ranked by the pancreas injury scale (PIS).

Results Thirty-two patients (25 males and 7 females) were enrolled, and median age of 36 (range: 23-68) years. Twenty-eight patients (87.5%) had blunt trauma whereas penetrating injury occurred in 4 (12.5%). There were 9 patients in group A, 7 in group B and 16 in group C. High grades of pancreatic injury ≥3 occurred in 4 patients from group B and 5 from group C. Distal pancreatectomy was performed in 7 patients while central resection and panceatico-gastrostomy in one. Grade IV injury occurred only in one patient who received damage-control laparotomy. Post-operative complication were significantly increased in group B compared with C, in correlation worse hemodynamic status and increased severity of PIS. Post-operative mortality occurred in 2 patients (6%), both from group B. Late consequences included pancreatic pseudocyst (4 cases) and walled off pancreatic necrosis (2 cases).

Conclusions High grades of pancreatic injury and hemodynamic instability correlate with worse outcome after surgery for pancreatic trauma.