The impact of obesity on the risk of postoperative pancreatic fistula in malignant surgical pathology

Postoperative pancreatic fistulas are one of the most serious postoperative complications, with important implications for the prognosis, postoperative evolution and quality of life. Patients' comorbidities play an important role in the process of producing this postoperative complication. Methods: a retrospective study was performed that included 109 patients with pancreatic resections for malignant pathology. the incidence of pancreatic fistula in relation to the associated pathology was analyzed: obesity, diabetes, hypertension and non-hypertensive cardiac pathology. Results: the incidence of pancreatic fistula on the entire study group was 11.01%. Obesity was the only factor with which a statistically significant association was obtained, the incidence of pancreatic fistula being 3.59 times higher in the group of obese patients. Conclusions: obesity is an important and independent predictive factor, which increases the risk of postoperative pancreatic fistula by increasing the difficulty of pancreatic dissection and anastomosis.