Surgical Outcomes of minimally invasive left pancreatectomy with and without prophylactic drainage

In Brazil, 10,980 patients were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year between 2023 and 2025, and some of them underwent left pancreatectomy (LP). This study describes the morbidity of LP surgeries that were performed through minimally invasive procedures and compares patients who received a surgical drain with those who didn’t in terms of clinical, surgical, and postoperative characteristics. This retrospective observational study included 105 minimally invasive LPs that were performed from 2010 to 2020. Surgical complications occurred in 35.2% of cases, which had Clavien grade I in 1.9%, grade II in 22.9%, grade III in 14.3%, and grade IV in 2.8% of patients. Pancreatic fistula occurred in 33.3% of cases, while abdominal fluid collection occurred in 32.4%, and both were more frequent in patients who did not receive a surgical drain. This study demonstrates that minimally invasive LP is a safe method with a complication rate equal to those in the literature.