Role of pancreatoduodenectomy in the management of primary duodenal wall gastrinomas in patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.

BACKGROUND

The role of pancreatoduodenectomy in the surgical management of duodenal wall gastrinomas (DWGs) has not been well established. Recently DWGs have been recognized with increasing frequency, and several reports have emphasized that pancreatoduodenectomy can now be performed with a low operative morbidity and mortality for other conditions. The purpose of this study was to determine the indications, safety, and efficacy of pancreatoduodenectomy in the treatment of DWGs.

METHODS

Forty-five patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome were evaluated and surgically treated between 1960 and 1991; 15 (33%) of these had primary DWGs.

RESULTS

Pancreatoduodenectomy was considered necessary for curative resection in six patients. Two of these patients had multiple gastrinomas as part of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 syndrome and underwent tumor excisions and total gastrectomy; both died of tumor-related complications (survival, 8.5 and 12 years). A third patient did not consent to pancreatoduodenectomy, underwent total gastrectomy and tumor excision, and also died of tumor-related complications (survival, 10 years). The remaining three patients underwent pancreatoduodenectomy. After pancreatoduodenectomies were performed, these three patients became and remained eugastrinemic with normal results from secretin stimulation tests (mean follow-up, 7.5 years).

CONCLUSIONS

In patients with DWGs and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, pancreatoduodenectomy should be considered the treatment of choice whenever complete tumor excision is not possible by a lesser procedure.