Clinical trial · Interventional
Early Drain Removal Versus Standard Drain Management After Distal Pancreatectomy (Early-Dist)
EARLY-DIST - Early Drain Removal Versus Standard Drain Management After Distal Pancreatectomy: a Randomized Controlled Trial
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Main indications for distal pancreatectomy (DP) are pancreatic body and tail tumors including ductal adenocarcinoma, neuroendocrine tumors, and cystic neoplasms. Despite a less invasive operation with lower morbidity compared to pancreatic head surgery, DP is burdened by the occurrence of clinically-relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF) in a significant proportion of patients. Drain fluid amylase (DFA) on POD 1 (postoperative day 1) \> 2,000 U/L appears as the best performing threshold to predict the occurrence of CR-POPF after distal pancreatectomy. Although there is preliminary evidence that early drain removal in the subgroup of patients with DFA1 \< 2,000 U/L may reduce POPF, no prospective study has yet evaluated the impact of an early drain removal strategy compared to standard management. The research question of this study is to evaluate to what extent early postoperative drain removal according to a validated DFA1 impact on clinically-relevant POPF rate after distal pancreatectomy in comparison to standard drain management. The primary hypothesis is that, early drain removal will result in a reduced proportion of patients experiencing grade B-C POPF according to ISGPS definition. The proposed study is a two-group, assessor-blind, randomized trial. Participants will be randomly assigned with a 1:1 ratio into one of two groups: (1) standard drain management or (2) early drain removal strategy. In this study adults (\>18 years) patients with pancreatic body or tail diseases planned for distal pancreatectomy with or without splenectomy will be enrolled.The primary outcome is the POPF at 90 days after surgery, defined as grade B or C POPF according to ISGPS definition. Participants will be asked to complete some questionnaires in order to assess their general health status, and they will be evaluated at time of hospital admission, at 15 days, at 30 days after surgery (via telephone follow-up), and at 90 days after surgery (via telephone follow-up).
Conditions
Conditions (4)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complication,Postoperative | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Pancreas Disease | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Pancreatic Fistula | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| PROMs | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (2)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early drain removal | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Standard drain removal | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Early drain removal
- description
- Participants will have an early drain removal (before postoperative day 3 (POD 3)) if specific conditions will be verified
- interventionNames
- Procedure: Early drain removal
- type
- ACTIVE_COMPARATOR
- label
- Standard drain removal
- description
- Participants will receive the current standard of care at San Raffaele Hospital.
- interventionNames
- Procedure: Standard drain removal
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Number of patients (n, %) developing a clinically-relevant pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF)
- timeFrame
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Adults (\>18 years) with pancreatic body or tail diseases planned for distal pancreatectomy with or without splenectomy Exclusion Criteria: * patient receiving an operation other than distal pancreatectomy (non-resective sx, total pancreatectomy) * concomitant celiac trunk resection (i.e. Appleby procedure) * concomitant multivisceral resection (i.e. colonic, gastric or liver resection)
References
Publications (20)
- BACKGROUNDLee MK 4th, Lewis RS, Strasberg SM, Hall BL, Allendorf JD, Beane JD, Behrman SW, Callery MP, Christein JD, Drebin JA, Epelboym I, He J, Pitt HA, Winslow E, Wolfgang C, Vollmer CM Jr. Defining the post-operative morbidity index for distal pancreatectomy. HPB (Oxford). 2014 Oct;16(10):915-23. doi: 10.1111/hpb.12293. Epub 2014 Jun 16. PMID 24931404
- BACKGROUNDMiao Y, Lu Z, Yeo CJ, Vollmer CM Jr, Fernandez-Del Castillo C, Ghaneh P, Halloran CM, Kleeff J, de Rooij T, Werner J, Falconi M, Friess H, Zeh HJ, Izbicki JR, He J, Laukkarinen J, Dejong CH, Lillemoe KD, Conlon K, Takaori K, Gianotti L, Besselink MG, Del Chiaro M, Montorsi M, Tanaka M, Bockhorn M, Adham M, Olah A, Salvia R, Shrikhande SV, Hackert T, Shimosegawa T, Zureikat AH, Ceyhan GO, Peng Y, Wang G, Huang X, Dervenis C, Bassi C, Neoptolemos JP, Buchler MW; International Study Group of Pancreatic Surgery (ISGPS). Management of the pancreatic transection plane after left (distal) pancreatectomy: Expert consensus guidelines by the International Study Group of Pancreatic Surgery (ISGPS). Surgery. 2020 Jul;168(1):72-84. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2020.02.018. Epub 2020 Apr 2. PMID 32249092
- BACKGROUNDBassi C, Molinari E, Malleo G, Crippa S, Butturini G, Salvia R, Talamini G, Pederzoli P. Early versus late drain removal after standard pancreatic resections: results of a prospective randomized trial. Ann Surg. 2010 Aug;252(2):207-14. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e3181e61e88. PMID 20622661
- BACKGROUNDMcMillan MT, Vollmer CM Jr. Predictive factors for pancreatic fistula following pancreatectomy. Langenbecks Arch Surg. 2014 Oct;399(7):811-24. doi: 10.1007/s00423-014-1220-8. Epub 2014 Jun 25. PMID 24962147
- BACKGROUNDGiglio MC, Spalding DR, Giakoustidis A, Zarzavadjian Le Bian A, Jiao LR, Habib NA, Pai M. Meta-analysis of drain amylase content on postoperative day 1 as a predictor of pancreatic fistula following pancreatic resection. Br J Surg. 2016 Mar;103(4):328-36. doi: 10.1002/bjs.10090. Epub 2016 Jan 21. PMID 26791838
- McMillan MT, Christein JD, Callery MP, Behrman SW, Drebin JA, Hollis RH, Kent TS, Miller BC, Sprys MH, Watkins AA, Strasberg SM, Vollmer CM Jr. Comparing the burden of pancreatic fistulas after pancreatoduodenectomy and distal pancreatectomy. Surgery. 2016 Apr;159(4):1013-22. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2015.10.028. Epub 2015 Dec 6.