Emergency laparoscopic surgery for ruptured pancreatic pseudocyst: Report of two cases and review of the literature

Pancreatic pseudocyst (PP) is a known complication of pancreatitis. When a rupture occurs, patients often become haemodynamically unstable and require emergency surgery for source control. Conventionally, such a procedure is carried out through open technique due to patient, surgeon and technical factors. We present two cases of emergency laparoscopic surgery performed for ruptured PP. Our first patient was a 53-year-old male with a ruptured 17.6 cm pancreatic body pseudocyst who underwent a laparoscopic washout, adhesiolysis, necrosectomy, distal pancreatectosplenectomy and cholecystectomy. The second patient was a 66-year-old male with a ruptured 11 cm pancreatic body pseudocyst who underwent laparoscopic surgery, subsequently converted to hand-assisted surgery. We compare our cases with the existing literature and discuss pertinent management considerations. In conclusion, we demonstrated that emergency laparoscopic adhesiolysis, necrosectomy and distal pancreatosplenectomy are feasible and safe for the management of ruptured pseudocyst when performed by an experienced surgeon. However, further studies are needed to determine the advantages or limitations of the minimally invasive surgical approach for the management of these complicated cases.