Postoperative pancreas-related complications (PPRC) can cause critical conditions, including sepsis and intra-abdominal bleeding. Thus, it is important to identify patients who are at risk of clinically significant PPRC as early as possible in the postoperative period. Some authors have reported the use of amylase concentration of the drainage fluid (dAmy) to predict PPRC. However, the positive predictive value of dAmy alone is not sufficient.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the predictive value of combined use of dAmy and serum C-reactive protein (sCRP) for PPRC.

The clinicopathological data of 327 patients who underwent elective gastrectomy for gastric cancer were reviewed. There were 18 patients who developed PPRC. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify the risk factors of PPRC. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to identify the cut-off values of dAmy and sCRP on postoperative day 3 (dAmy3 and sCRP3) to predict the risk of PPRC.

In the multivariate analysis, splenectomy alone correlated with PPRC. The cut-off values of dAmy3 and sCRP3 were 761 IU/L and 15.15 mg/dL, respectively. Among the 17 patients with both dAmy3 and sCRP3 above the thresholds, 10 (58.8%) had PPRC with Clavien-Dindo classification (CD) ≥II and 7 (41.2%) had PPRC with CD ≥III. In contrast, among the 236 patients with both parameters below the thresholds, 233 (98.7%) did not develop PPRC, and only 1 (0.4%) had PPRC with CD ≥III.

Splenectomy correlates with PPRC, which is consistent with results from large clinical trials. A combined use of dAmy3 and sCRP3 can be useful in predicting the risks of PPRC.