Background:
The best approach for treating benign or low-grade malignant lesions localized in the pancreatic neck or body remains debatable. Conventional pancreatoduodenectomy and distal pancreatectomy (DP) are associated with a risk of impairment of pancreatic function at long-term follow-up. With advances in technology and surgical skills, the use of central pancreatectomy (CP) has gradually increased.
Objectives:
The objective was to compare the safety, feasibility, and short-term and long-term clinical benefits of CP and DP in matched cases.
Methods:
The PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases were systematically searched to identify studies published from database inception to February 2022 that compared CP and DP. This meta-analysis was performed using R software.
Results:
Twenty-six studies matched the selection criteria, including 774 CP and 1713 DP cases. CP was significantly associated with longer operative time (
P
<0.0001), less blood loss (
P
<0.01), overall and clinically relevant pancreatic fistula (
P
<0.0001), postoperative hemorrhage (
P
<0.0001), reoperation (
P
=0.0196), delayed gastric emptying (
P
=0.0096), increased hospital stay (
P
=0.0002), intra-abdominal abscess or effusion (
P
=0.0161), higher morbidity (
P
<0.0001) and severe morbidity (
P
<0.0001) but with a significantly lower incidence of overall endocrine and exocrine insufficiency (
P
<0.01), and new-onset and worsening diabetes mellitus (
P
<0.0001) than DP.
Conclusions:
CP should be considered as an alternative to DP in selected cases such as without pancreatic disease, length of the residual distal pancreas is more than 5 cm, branch-duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, and a low risk of postoperative pancreatic fistula after adequate evaluation.