A research article to be published June 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. This is believed to be the first study to investigate the effect of PBD in ampullary cancer. A team of gastroenterologists led by Dr Steven Joseph Mesenas and hepatobiliary surgeons at Singapore General Hospital divided 82 patients with ampullary cancer planned for surgical resection into those with PBD (n = 35) and those without (n = 47). The authors looked into various outcomes after surgery, such as pancreatic leakage, wound infection, bile leakage, infectious morbidity, intra-abdominal or gastrointestinal bleeding, intra-abdominal abscess, delayed gastric emptying and mortality. They found that the PBD group had a significantly reduced wound infection rate compared to the non-PBD group. More studies should be conducted to assess this benefit, especially in ampullary cancer patients.
Reference: Abdullah SA, Gupta T, Jaafar KA, Chung YFA, Ooi LLPJ, Mesenas SJ. Ampullary carcinoma: Effect of preoperative biliary drainage on surgical outcome. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(23): 2908-2912
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/2908.asp
Correspondence to: Dr. Steven Joseph Mesenas, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Singapore General Hospital, Outram Road 169608, Singapore. steven.mesenas@sgh.com.sg
Telephone: +65-81253452 Fax: +65-62273625
World Journal of Gastroenterology