Preoperative Surgical or Endoscopic Bile Duct Drainage in Pancreatic Cancer.

Background: Patients with pancreatic cancer and obstructive jaundice routinely undergo endoscopic stent placement (ES). It is well known that ES causes bacterial contamination and infectious complications after pancreatic resection.

Objective: To compare short-term outcomes and survival in patients undergoing pancreatic head resection after preoperative ES vs preoperative surgical drainage (SD) via T-tube insertion.