A relative increase in Treg may be related to immunosuppression and tumor progression in patients with pancreatic cancer. The immunological monitoring of Treg may be useful to predict the prognosis for patients with pancreatic cancer.

This retrospective single-center study showed that reinforcement of PJ anastomosis using PGA mesh and fibrin glue provided no significant benefit in reducing the frequency of POPF.

The presence of high-risk markers was associated with surgical unresectability in patients with potentially or borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. The selective use of staging laparoscopy decreased the frequency of unnecessary laparotomy by detecting minute metastases.

This retrospective single-center study showed that nonstented duct-to-mucosa anastomosis was a safe procedure and was associated with a shortened in-hospital stay.

The objective of this study was to examine whether the development of cholangitis after preoperative biliary drainage (PBD) can increase the incidence of postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF). The study population included 185 consecutive patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy from April 2006 to March 2011. All patients were divided into two groups, which consisted of a “no PBD” group (73 patients) and a PBD group (112 patients). Moreover, the PBD group was divided into a “cholangitis” group (21 patients) and a “no cholangitis” group (91 patients). Clinical background, clinical outcome, and postoperative complications were compared between groups. All patients received prophylactic antibiotics using cefmetazole until 1 or 2 days postoperatively. There was no difference between noncholangitis and non-PBD groups except the frequency of overall POPF. Clinically relevant POPF and drain infection occurred in the cholangitis group significantly more than in the noncholangitis group ( P < 0.05). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that development of preoperative cholangitis after preoperative biliary drainage and small pancreatic duct (less than 3 mm diameter) were independent risk factors for clinically relevant POPF. The frequency of clinically relevant POPF was 8 per cent (eight of 99) in patients without two risk factors, 19 per cent (15 of 80) in patients with one risk factor, and 50 per cent (three of six) in patients with both risk factors. The development of preoperative cholangitis after PBD was closely associated with the development of clinically relevant POPF under the limited use of prophylactic antibiotics.

Aim The purpose of this study was to determine the prognostic factors of non‐occlusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI) and to examine treatment strategies that could improve its prognosis. Methods We retrospectively identified 30 patients who underwent emergency laparotomy for NOMI in Kansai Medical University Hospital (Hirakata, Japan) from April 2013 to December 2017. We examined prognostic factors related to discharge outcome and also examined the prognostic impact of open abdominal management and second look operation strategy (OSS) by dividing the patients into the non‐OSS group and the OSS group. Results The primary end‐point was a prognostic factor for outcome at discharge of the 30 patients. The outcome at discharge was compared between the survival group and the death group. Multivariate analysis was undertaken on two items from the univariate analysis that showed a significant difference (computed tomography findings of intestinal pneumatosis and acute disseminated intravascular coagulation [DIC] score). As a result, there was a significant difference in the factors of intestinal pneumatosis (odds ratio = 0.054; 95% confidence interval, 0.005–0.607; P = 0.018) and DIC score (odds ratio = 1.892; 95% confidence interval, 1.077–3.323; P = 0.027). The secondary end‐point was the treatment outcome before and after the application of OSS. Operation time was significantly shorter and the amount of bleeding was also significantly less in the OSS group. Conclusion Computed tomography findings of intestinal pneumatosis and the acute disseminated intravascular coagulation score were found to be prognostic factors for survival in patients with NOMI. Aggressive laparotomy to determine the definitive diagnosis is needed and OSS could be useful to improve patient prognosis for survival from NOMI.

The implementation of new departmental guidelines for distal pancreatectomy was closely associated with a low frequency of intra-abdominal abscess and grade 3/4 Clavien score, resulting in a shorter in-hospital stay.

Long-term use of a critical pathway is associated with improved clinical outcomes. A certain period of time or volume of patients is needed for this improvement in clinical outcomes to reach a plateau, which indicates achieving standardization of peri-operative management.