Survival and rehabilitation after total pancreatectomy. A follow-up of 36 patients.

Thirty-six totally depancreatectomized patients were followed up for 4-124 months. Pancreatectomy had been performed because of fulminant pancreatitis (in 10), chronic hyperalgic otherwise untractable pancreatitis (in 7), exocrine carcinoma of the pancreas (in 16), cystadenocarcinoma of the pancreas (in 2) and insulinoma (in 1). The longest survival duration was in chronic pancreatitis patients: 57 +/- 17 months. A normal socio-professional reinsertion was obtained in 16 patients, mainly those with non-malignant pancreotopathies. At the end of the survey, ten of the carcinoma patients had died, versus none in the other groups. Diabetes mellitus was characterized by the absence of ketonuria, and the frequent occurrence of hypoglycemia (in 15 patients) and infection (in 6). Malabsorption caused osteomalacia in one patient.