Biomedical Letters

Preoperative biliary drainage for pancreatic head carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Vladmir Lenine Ferreira Cabral, Jiahua Zhou*

Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Zhongda Hospital of Southeast University, Dingjiaqiao, Nanjing 210009, China

Abstract

The aim of this study is to carry out a meta-analysis and to systematically review the impact of preoperative biliary drainage in obstructive jaundiced patients for pancreatic head carcinoma compared with that of the direct early surgery group based on their postoperative clinical outcomes. Systematic search of publications were conducted electronically (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane library from 2000-2015). Studies included were Randomized controlled trials, Case-control studies, Cohort studies were include if they investigated and compared the preoperative biliary drainage outcomes with surgery outcomes in patients with obstructive jaundice caused by a tumor of the pancreatic head. Meta-analysis showed significant difference in the incidence of intra-abdominal abscess in which six studies had reported results of the incidence (p=0.02) (RR=0.50, 95%CI [0.29, 0.88]). In summary, Preoperative biliary drainage group when compared with direct early surgery group showed increased incidence of intra-abdominal abscess for pancreatic head carcinoma patients.

Keywords: Preoperative biliary drainage, pancreatic head carcinoma, obstructive jaundice, risk ratio, confidence interval.

Received April 30, 2015 Revised May 13, 2015 Accepted May 25, 2015

*Correspondence: Jiahua Zhou Email: zhoujiahua@hotmail.com