Quantifying the Burden of Complications Following Total Pancreatectomy Using the Postoperative Morbidity Index: A Multi-Institutional Perspective

Background: While contemporary studies demonstrate decreasing complication rates following total pancreatectomy (TP), none have quantified the impact of post-TP complications. The Postoperative Morbidity Index (PMI)—a quantitative measure of postoperative morbidity—combines ACS-NSQIP complication data with severity weighting derived from Modified Accordion Grading System. We establish the PMI for TP in a multi-institutional cohort.

Methods: Nine institutions contributed ACS-NSQIP data for 64 TPs (2005–2011). Each complication was assigned an Accordion severity weight ranging from 0.110 (grade 1/mild) to 1.00 (grade 6/death). PMI equals the sum of complication severity weights (“Total Burden”) divided by total number of patients.

Results: Overall, 29 patients (45.3 %) suffered 55 ACS-NSQIP complications; 15 (23.4 %) had >1 complication. Thirteen patients (20.3 %) were readmitted and one death (1.6 %) occurred within 30 days. Non-risk adjusted PMI was 0.151, while PMI for complication-bearing cases rose to 0.333. Bleeding/Transfusion and Sepsis were the most common complications. Discordance between frequency and burden of complications was observed. While grades 4–6 comprised only 18.5 % of complications, they contributed 37.1 % to the series’ total burden.

Conclusion: This multi-institutional series is the first to quantify the complication burden following TP using the rigor of ACS-NSQIP. A PMI of 0.151 indicates that, collectively, patients undergoing TP have an average burden of complications in the mild to moderate severity range, although complication-bearing patients have a considerable reduction in health utility.