Three-dimensional surgical simulation of the bile duct and vascular arrangement in pancreatoduodenectomy: A retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We evaluated the usefulness of three-dimensional (3D) images for pancreatoduodenectomy (PD), including the classification of the bile duct and vascular arrangement, i.e., hepatic artery, inferior mesenteric vein (IMV) and left gastric vein (LGV). We evaluated the extent to which this simulation affected the perioperative outcomes of PD. METHODS: In all, 117 patients who underwent PD were divided into the without-3D (n = 53) and with-3D (n = 64) groups, and perioperative outcomes were compared. We evaluated the arrangement of the accessory bile duct and the hepatic artery (type I: the right hepatic artery arising from the superior mesenteric artery, type II: the left hepatic artery arising from the left gastric artery, type III: the most common pattern) and the confluence pattern of the LGV and the IMV [type i: portal vein (PV):splenic vein (SV), type ii: PV:superior mesenteric vein (SMV), type iii: SV:SV, and type iv: SV:SMV] between the two groups. RESULTS: Two patients had an accessory bile duct. The 3D images were classified as type I (n = 4), type II (n = 10), type III (n = 48) and other patterns (n = 2); type ii (n = 27) was the most frequent confluence pattern (p < 0.05). Intraoperative blood loss was reduced in the with-3D group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We propose that the 3D imaging technique is useful for preoperative assessment in PD.