Early implementation of laparoscopic left-sided pancreatectomy in a tertiary low-volume hospital.

Background And Aims: Current international guidelines recommend a center volume of at least 20 minimally invasive pancreatic procedures a year to perform laparoscopic left pancreatectomy. Iceland is a small, isolated country that is unavoidably low volume in terms of pancreatic surgery. To ensure good quality of care, there is a long tradition of surgeons training abroad, but this system has not been formally evaluated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of laparoscopic and open left pancreatectomy over the last 20 years in Iceland.

Methods: This was a national retrospective cohort study including all patients who underwent left-sided pancreatic resection in Iceland from 2003 to 2022.

Results: A total of 244 patients underwent a pancreatic procedure during the study period. Eighty of these underwent left-sided resections, 41 of whom had a laparoscopic left pancreatectomy (LLP). Resection rates increased over the study period, and a significantly larger proportion of patients underwent LLP in the latter half of the study period. The laparoscopy group had statistically significantly lower rates of splenectomy (<0.001) and blood loss (<0.001) compared with open surgery. The morbidity rate of severe complications (Clavien-Dindo grade IIIa or higher) was 23%. The in-hospital and 90-day mortality rates were 1% and 4%, respectively.

Conclusions: Overall, the operative and postoperative outcomes of left-sided pancreatic resections in a low-volume setting in Iceland were comparable to current reported studies from other Western countries.

Clinical Trial Registration Number: NCT06738914.