Postoperative narcotic use is associated with development of clinically relevant pancreatic fistulas after distal pancreatectomy.

Background: Various strategies to decrease postoperative pancreatic fistula after a distal pancreatectomy have proved unsuccessful. Because narcotics can cause spasm of the sphincter of Oddi and thereby increase pressure within the pancreatic duct stump, we hypothesized that increased narcotic use would be associated with increased occurrence of clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula after distal pancreatectomy.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of consecutive distal pancreatectomies (2011-2016) was performed.