Pathophysiology and management of patients with diabetes mellitus in gastrointestinal surgery, with special reference to hepatectomy and pancreaticoduodenectomy]

In the 235 patients with hepatectomy, 111 with pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) and 547 with gastrectomy for the past 15 years and 5 months, we compared the incidence of postoperative complications between patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and those without DM, and studied glucose metabolism and management of diabetic patients. DM was most frequently found at 27.7% in hepatectomy, especially 38.7% in cirrhotic patients, followed by 24.3% in PD and only 5.9% in gastrectomy. The incidence of postoperative complications was not different between DM and non-DM after gastrectomy and PD. It was significantly higher in DM than in non-DM after hepatectomy (38.5% vs. 11.8%), although there was no statistically significant difference in the cirrhotic patients with hepatectomy (34.9% vs. 23.5%). The studies on insulin metabolism preoperatively determined by oral glucose tolerance test and postoperative control of DM revealed that diabetic patients with hepatectomy, especially hepatogenous DM, had a significantly reduced insulin uptake in the liver and exogenous insulin resistance to glucose. After PD for diabetic patients, a long-term care of impaired pancreatic exocrine and endocrine functions was considered to be required, especially paying attention to lipid and zinc metabolism.