Increasing evidence for minimally invasive approach to distal pancreatectomy

We read with great interest the work of Matsumoto et al., “Laparoscopic versus open distal pancreatectomy for benign and low-grade malignant lesions of the pancreas: a single-center comparative study” that was published in Surgery Today (1). This article describes a retrospective comparison of laparoscopic distal pancreatectomies (LDP) vs. open distal pancreatectomies (ODP) from a prospectively maintained database, performed in a single centre in Osaka, Japan. Consecutive patients (n=67) operated during a little over a 5-year period were included.