Laparoscopic staging and subsequent palliation in patients with peripancreatic carcinoma.
Nieveen van Dijkum, Els JM;
Romijn, Mark G;
Terwee, Caroline B;
de Wit, Laurens Th;
van der Meulen, Jan HP;
Lameris, Han S;
Rauws, Erik AJ;
Obertop, Huug;
van Eyck, Casper HJ;
Bossuyt, Patrick MM;
+1 more...Gouma, Dirk J;
(2003)
Laparoscopic staging and subsequent palliation in patients with peripancreatic carcinoma.
Annals of surgery, 237 (1).
pp. 66-73.
ISSN 0003-4932
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/00000658-200301000-00010
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OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that laparoscopic staging improves outcome in patients with peripancreatic carcinoma compared to standard radiology staging. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Diagnostic laparoscopy of peripancreatic malignancies has been reported to improve assessment of tumor stage and to prevent unnecessary exploratory laparotomies in 10% to 76% of patients. METHODS: Laparoscopy and laparoscopic ultrasound were performed in 297 consecutive patients with peripancreatic carcinoma scheduled for surgery after radiologic staging. Patients with pathology-proven unresectable tumors were randomly allocated to either surgical or endoscopic palliation. All others underwent laparotomy. RESULTS: Laparoscopic staging detected biopsy-proven unresectable disease in 39 patients (13%). At laparotomy, unresectable disease was found in another 72 patients, leading to a detection rate for laparoscopic staging of 35%. In total, 145 of the 197 patients classified as having "possibly resectable" disease after laparoscopic staging underwent resection (74%). Average survival in the group of 14 patients with biopsy-proven unresectable tumors randomly allocated to endoscopic palliation was 116 days, with a mean hospital-free survival of 94 days. The corresponding figures were 192 days and 164 days in the 13 patients allocated to surgical palliation. CONCLUSIONS: Because of the limited detection rate for unresectable metastatic disease and the likely absence of a large gain after switching from surgical to endoscopic palliation, laparoscopic staging should not be performed routinely in patients with peripancreatic carcinoma.