[Resective surgical treatment of exocrine pancreas neoplasms. Retrospective study of 294 cases and review of the literature].

Authors report their own experience on the treatment of pancreatic neoplasms. Two-hundred-ninety-four patients were observed during the years 1959-95. Resectability rate was 18%. Fifty-three patients underwent pancreatic resection: 22 distal pancreatectomies (41.5%), 2 total pancreatectomies (3.7%) and 29 pancreaticoduodenectomies (54.7%) (7 PPPD). Overall morbidity rate was 15.6% with decrease during the years of major postoperative complications. More frequent complications were renal failure (4%), bleeding (1.7%) and acute pancreatitis (5.6%), which was absent during the 1981-95 period. Pancreatic fistula occurred in 5.6%, but in the years 1981-95 only one patient suffered from it (1.8%). During the years 1959-70 operative mortality rate after pancreatic resection was 22.7%, during 1971-80 was 12.5% and during 1981-95 decreased to 4.3%. Patients with stage I tumours survived curative pancreatic resection for about 18.2 months, compared with those with stage II and III tumours, who survived for about 15 and 13 months, respectively. Recent studies have demonstrated a reduction in the morbidity and mortality of pancreatic resections and improvement in the actuarial 5-year survival for patients with resected ductal adenocarcinoma. In the presence of lymphnode metastases, pancreaticoduodenectomy offers good palliation and meaningful survival. In the absence of lymphnode metastases, pancreaticoduodenectomy offers encouraging long-term survival rates and a chance for cure.