Migration of abdominal drains into the gastrointestinal tract: unexpected complications

Abstract

<b>Introduction</b>: To give an overview of the literature on intraluminal migration of the drain placed in the intraperitoneal area. <br /> <b>Material and methods</b>: We present a new case of intraluminal migration of the drain placed in the intraperitoneal area and a literature review of studies published in English language on intraluminal migration of the drain placed in the intraperitoneal area, accessed via PubMed and Google Scholar databases.<br /> <b>Results: </b> A 55-year-old male patient presented to our clinic with abdominal pain and jaundice who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy having been diagnosed with carcinoma of the distal choledoch. During the patient’s follow-ups it was seen that the drain placed into the abdomen had migrated into the intraluminal area. The patient was treated successfully by the controlled removal of the drain. In addition, a total of 9 reports concerning 14 cases of intraluminal migration of the drain placed in the intraperitoneal area meeting the aforementioned criteria were included in the literature review. Eleven of these patients were male (70%), while 3 were female (30%) and their mean age was 62.5 (49–79). While 12 of these patients were treated by drain removal, 2 had surgical treatment. <br /> <b>Conclusions</b>: We believe that controlled removal of the drain can safely be applied in patients whom the fistula tract has been established following upper GI system surgeries that are complicated by intraluminal drain migration.