Pancreatic head excavation for tissue diagnosis may reduce unnecessary pancreaticoduode- nectomies in the setting of chronic pancreatitis

• Published in: 国际肝胆胰疾病杂志（英文版） 2017, Vol.16 (3), p.315-322
• Main Author: Alessandro Fancellu Giorgio C Ginesu Claudio F Feo Maria L Cossu Marco Puledda Antonio Pinna Alberto Porcu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1499-3872
• DOI: 10.1016/S1499-3872(17)60015-8

BACKGROUND： The necessity to obtain a tissue diagnosis of cancer prior to pancreatic surgery still remains an open debate. In fact, a non-negligible percentage of patients under- going pancreaticoduodenectomy （PD） for suspected cancer has a benign lesion at final histology. We describe an approach for patients with diagnostic uncertainty between cancer and chronic pancreatitis, with the aim of minimizing the incidence of PD for suspicious malignancy finally diagnosed as benign disease. METHODS： Eighty-eight patients （85.4%） with a clinicoradio- logical picture highly suggestive for malignancy received for- mal PD （group 1）. Fifteen patients （14.6%） in whom preopera- tive diagnosis was uncertain between pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis underwent pancreatic head excavation （PHEX） for intraoperative tissue diagnosis （group 2）： those diagnosed as having cancer received PD, whereas those with chronic pancreatitis received pancreaticojejunostomy （P]）. RESULTS： No patient received PD for benign disease. All pa- tients in group I had adenocarcinoma on final histology. Eight patients of group 2 （53.3%） received PD after intraoperative diagnosis of cancer, whereas 7 （46.7%） received PJ because no malignancy was found at introperative frozen sections. No signs of cancer were encountered in patients receiving PHEX and PJ after a median follow-up of 42 months. Overall survival did not differ between patients receiving PD for cancer in the group 1 and those receiving PD for cancer after PHEX in the group 2 （P=0.509）. CONCLUSION： Although the described technique has been used in a very selected group of patients, our results suggest that PHEX for tissue diagnosis may reduce rates of unnecessary PD, when the preoperative diagnosis is uncertain between cancer and chronic pancreatitis.