Obstructive jaundice is a common symptom in patients with pancreatic head cancer or peri-ampullary cancer. It is regarded that proper surgical resection is the only possible way of radical cure for those patients without evidence of metastasis. Since high preoperative bilirubin level is suggested to be a risk factor for pancreatoduodenectomy, preoperative biliary drainage has been applied to clinical practice to improve the outcome of surgery. However, results from previous studies have inconsistent results showing that PBD may have adverse effect on patients by elevating the prevalence of complications. Since PBD is widely performed worldwide, its value needs to be clarified. Thus the present study is designed to systematically evaluate the value of PBD via recruiting participants who may most likely benefit from PBD. It is anticipated that results from this study can present an instructive conclusion on whether PBD should be performed prior to pancreatoduodenectomy as well as reveal the preferable type of PBD.
