Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 14, 2021; 27(14): 1507-1523
Published online Apr 14, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i14.1507
T-tube vs no T-tube for biliary tract reconstruction in adult orthotopic liver transplantation: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis
Jun-Zhou Zhao, Lin-Lan Qiao, Zhao-Qing Du, Jia Zhang, Meng-Zhou Wang, Tao Wang, Wu-Ming Liu, Lin Zhang, Jian Dong, Zheng Wu, Rong-Qian Wu
Jun-Zhou Zhao, Lin-Lan Qiao, Zhao-Qing Du, Jia Zhang, Meng-Zhou Wang, Tao Wang, Wu-Ming Liu, Lin Zhang, Jian Dong, Zheng Wu, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Jun-Zhou Zhao, Lin-Lan Qiao, Zhao-Qing Du, Jia Zhang, Rong-Qian Wu, National Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Precision Surgery and Regenerative Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the study; Zhao JZ participated in the search strategy design and performed most statistical analyses and paper writing; Qiao LL, Du ZQ, and Zhang J did a literature search of the databases in parallel, built up selection criteria, and selected the potential studies; Wang MZ and Wang T defined the interventions and outcomes; Liu WM, Zhang L, and Dong J assessed the studies’ quality and figured out the characteristics of the selected studies; Wu Z assisted with the design of the study; Wu RQ designed and supervised the study and revised the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81770491; and The Innovation Capacity Support Plan of Shaanxi Province, No. 2020TD-040.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist and finished the manuscripts according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rong-Qian Wu, MD, PhD, Professor, National Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Precision Surgery and Regenerative Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 76 West Yanta Road, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China. rwu001@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
Received: December 3, 2020
Peer-review started: December 3, 2020
First decision: December 21, 2020
Revised: December 29, 2020
Accepted: March 18, 2021
Article in press: March 18, 2021
Published online: April 14, 2021
Processing time: 126 Days and 23.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This is the first meta-analysis that compared the postoperative outcomes with or without a T-tube in biliary reconstruction during orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) before and after 2010. Before 2010, T-tube was favorable for biliary stricture and had no influence on overall biliary complications, bile leaks, and cholangitis. After 2010, not using a T-tube was good for overall biliary complications and cholangitis; however, using a T-tube was not associated with biliary strictures and showed an unbeneficial trend for bile leaks. Therefore, the studies published in the last decade did not provide enough evidence to support the use of T-tube during adult OLT.