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. 1989 Dec;210(6):748–750. doi: 10.1097/00000658-198912000-00009

Hepatectomy without abdominal drainage. Results of a prospective study in 61 patients.

D Franco 1, A Karaa 1, J L Meakins 1, G Borgonovo 1, C Smadja 1, D Grange 1
PMCID: PMC1357866  PMID: 2556083

Abstract

The increasingly simple postoperative course of major surgery has challenged the routine use of drainage after most abdominal surgical procedures. Therefore a prospective study was designed to determine if abdominal drainage could be safely avoided after liver resection and was evaluated in 61 consecutive patients. There was one postoperative death (1.7%) from variceal bleeding. Four other patients (6.7%) developed an abdominal complication: two right subphrenic hematomas requiring reoperation in one case and two incisional ascitic leaks requiring incisional repair in one patient. There was neither a subphrenic abscess nor bile peritonitis. Postoperative hospitalization was 11.5 +/- 3 days in the entire group and 8.5 +/- 1 days in patients without complications. These results suggest that liver resection can be performed safely without abdominal drainage and that the routine use of drains is unnecessary.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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