Background: Venous reconstruction has been recently demonstrated to be safe for tumours with invasion into portal vein and/or superior mesenteric vein. This study aims to compare the patency between various venous reconstructions.
Methods: This is retrospective study of 76 patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy or total pancreatectomy with venous reconstruction from 2006 to 2018. Patient demographics, tumour histopathology, morbidity, mortality and patency were studied. Kaplan-Meier estimates were performed for primary venous patency.
Results: Sixty-two patients underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy and 14 underwent total pancreatectomy. Forty-seven, 19 and 10 patients underwent primary repair, end-to-end anastomosis and interposition graft respectively. Major morbidity (Clavien-Dindo >grade 2) and 30-day mortality were 14/76(18.4%) and 1/76(1.3%) respectively. There were 12(15.8%) venous occlusion including 4(5.3%) acute occlusions. Overall 6-month, 1-year and 2-year primary patency was 89.1%, 92.5% and 92.3% respectively. 1-year primary patency of primary repair was superior to end-to-end anastomosis and interposition graft (primary repair 100%, end-to-end anastomosis 81.8%, interposition graft 66.7%, p = 0.045). Pairwise comparison also demonstrated superior 1-year patency of primary repair (adjusted p = 0.037). There was no significant difference between the cumulative venous patency for each venous reconstruction method: primary repair 84±6%, end-to-end anastomosis 75±11% and interposition graft 76±15% (p = 0.561).
Conclusion: 1-year primary venous patency of primary repair is superior to end-to-end anastomosis and interposition graft.