Background:

pancreatic cancer presents a high mortality, a product that most of the time is diagnosed in advanced stage. The treatment of choice is surgical resection, which due to its complexity is accompanied by significant morbidity and mortality when it is not performed in high-volume centers. Among the complications, the postoperative pancreatic fistula is of frequent appearance.

Objective:

to carry out an updated systematic review about the concept and classification of postoperative pancreatic fistula.

Methods:

a systematic review of the literature was carried out using the SCOPUS database under the criteria established by its reviewers, using the following keywords: pancreatic fistula, pancreatic surgery, complications, mortality, Whipple procedure. All publications in English and Spanish were included. The method of analysis and synthesis was used for the interpretation of the bibliography.

Results:

175 articles were reviewed, of which 55 were chosen that met the selection criteria. Among them, 4 meta-analyzes, 8 review articles and 33 original articles.

Conclusions:

the concept and classification of postoperative pancreatic fistula constitutes a valid tool for the comparison of surgical results between institutions. The centralization of care in high-volume centers is the main measure to reduce this complication.

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