The influence of preoperative jaundice, biliary drainage and age on postoperative morbidity and mortality after pancreatoduodenectomy and total pancreatectomy.

Details are given of the postoperative course of 56 patients after pancreatoduodenectomy, and 11 after total pancreatectomy. The main indication was adenocarcinoma (56 cases). The most serious complication was leakage from the pancreatojejunostomy, which occurred in nine patients and was fatal in seven of these (10%). This was the only cause of death in the group. The observed mortality was appreciably higher (38%) in the 13 patients aged over 70 years. Contrary to recent reports, jaundice was not found to influence postoperative mortality adversely, nor was preoperative biliary drainage found to reduce mortality.