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Pancreas surgery

Top Doctors
Top Doctors editorial
Top Doctors
Created by: Top Doctors editorial

 

Pancreas surgery is the set of surgical procedures are performed to treat acute or chronic pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer. In the latter case, there are different surgical procedures: Whipple operation, total pancreatectomy, distal pancreatectomy and biliary diversion. Whipple surgery involves removal of the head of the pancreas, part of the small intestine and some surrounding tissue. The surgeon leaves a small part of the pancreas to continue to produce digestive juices and insulin. Total pancreatectomy involves removing the entire pancreas, small intestine, stomach, bile duct, gallbladder, spleen and most of the lymph nodes in the region. For its part, the distal pancreatectomy involves removing the body and tail of the pancreas. Biliary diversion is done if the cancer is blocking the small intestine and bile builds up in the gallbladder. In this case, the bile duct is cut and attached to the bowel, but can also solve the problem by placing a catheter to drain bile. As for treatment for acute or chronic pancreatitis, intervention, called cholecystectomy, is removed by laparoscopy (small incisions in the abdomen) gallbladder by an accumulation of calculi (stones).