Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Feb 27, 2023; 15(2): 193-200
Published online Feb 27, 2023. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v15.i2.193
Causes of epigastric pain and vomiting after laparoscopic-assisted radical right hemicolectomy - superior mesenteric artery syndrome
Juan Xie, Jiao Bai, Ting Zheng, Jian Shu, Ma-Li Liu
Juan Xie, Jiao Bai, Ting Zheng, Jian Shu, Ma-Li Liu, Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Xie J, Bai J, Zheng T, Shu J, and Liu ML designed and performed the research; Xie J analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University (Approval No. KY2022233).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Juan Xie, Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, No. 25 Taiping Street, Jiangyang District, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China. 408588766@qq.com
Received: August 23, 2022
Peer-review started: August 23, 2022
First decision: November 5, 2022
Revised: November 19, 2022
Accepted: January 9, 2023
Article in press: January 9, 2023
Published online: February 27, 2023
Processing time: 187 Days and 23.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Superior mesenteric artery syndrome (SMAS) is a rare condition causing functional obstruction of the third portion of the duodenum. Postoperative SMAS following laparoscopic-assisted radical right hemicolectomy is even less prevalent and can often be unrecognized by radiologists and clinicians.

AIM

To analyze the clinical features, risk factors, and prevention of SMAS after laparoscopic-assisted radical right hemicolectomy.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed clinical data of 256 patients undergoing laparoscopic-assisted radical right hemicolectomy in the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from January 2019 to May 2022. The occurrence of SMAS and its countermeasures were evaluated. Among the 256 patients, SMAS was confirmed in six patients (2.3%) by postoperative clinical presentation and imaging features. All six patients were examined by enhanced computed tomography (CT) before and after surgery. Patients who developed SMAS after surgery were used as the experimental group. A simple random sampling method was used to select 20 patients who underwent surgery at the same time but did not develop SMAS and received preoperative abdominal enhanced CT as the control group. The angle and distance between the superior mesenteric artery and abdominal aorta were measured before and after surgery in the experimental group and before surgery in the control group. The preoperative body mass index (BMI) of the experimental group and the control group was calculated. The type of lymphadenectomy and surgical approach in the experimental and control groups were recorded. The differences in angle and distance were compared preoperatively and postoperatively in the experimental group compared. The differences in angle, distance, BMI, type of lymphadenectomy and surgical approach between the experimental and control groups were compared, and the diagnostic efficacy of the significant parameters was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curves.

RESULTS

In the experimental group, the aortomesenteric angle and distance after surgery were significantly decreased than those before surgery (P < 0.05). The aortomesenteric angle, distance and BMI were significantly higher in the control group than in the experimental (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the type of lymphadenectomy and surgical approach between the two groups (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The small preoperative aortomesenteric angle and distance and low BMI may be important factors for the complication. Over-cleaning of lymph fatty tissues may also be associated with this complication.

Keywords: Right hemicolectomy; Superior mesenteric artery syndrome; X-ray computed tomography

Core Tip: This study retrospectively analyzed 256 patients undergoing laparoscopic-assisted radical right hemicolectomy, and six patients developed superior mesenteric artery syndrome (SMAS). The preoperative and postoperative aortomesenteric angle and distance were compared in the six patients, and 20 patients without postoperative SMAS were randomly selected for comparative analysis with 6 patients developed SMAS. The results and literature review suggest possible reasons and preventative measures for SMAS after right hemicolectomy.