Pancreaticogastrostomy After Pancreatoduodenectomy

The aim of this study was to evaluate the place of pancreaticogastrostomy (PG) in reducing pancreatic fistula after pancreatoduodenectomy. From January 1988 to June 1991, 32 consecutive patients (mean age, 57 years) were operated on, 25 for malignant disease (78%). The pancreatic remnant was normal in 17 patients (53%) and sclerotic in the others. There was one operative death (3.1%) unrelated to PG. Post-operative complications occurred in five patients (16%). Only two complications were related to PG: 1 patient had anastomotic intra-gastric bleeding and was reoperated on, 1 patient with a normal pancreatic remnant developed a pancreatic fistula (3.1%) treated conservatively

The surgical management of congenital hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia in infancy.

BACKGROUND: Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is characterized by profound hypoglycaemia caused by inappropriate insulin secretion. CHI is a heterogeneous disorder with at least 2 histologic lesions and several implicated genes. If CHI is caused by a focal lesion, elective surgery is the only treatment because it leads to complete recovery without diabetes; on the contrary, diffuse CHI can only be cured by near-total pancreatectomy, and medical treatment, if efficient, is preferable. It is therefore mandatory to distinguish the 2 forms of CHI, and the surgeon has to fullfill his role in the multidisciplinary team that deals with CHI. METHODS: A total of 134 patients with CHI were investigated both radiologically and with molecular biology. Pathology was the only proof of focal or diffuse lesions, and the pancreatic tissue could be studied by electrophysiology (Katp and Ca channels) and gene study. RESULTS: In 59 infants with CHI, a focal lesion was suspected by radiology and proved by extemporaneous pathology; partial pancreatectomy (33 tail +/- body, 19 head, 5 isthmus resections) was performed, and molecular biology and histochemistry confirmed the genetic lesion specific to the focal disease; 75 near-total pancreatectomies were necessary in diffuse disease to prevent brain damage. CONCLUSIONS: CHI is a severe brain-threatening disease. Surgery is indicated in all focal diseases, providing they are diagnosed preoperatively. In diffuse disease with resistance to medical treatment, near-total pancreatectomy is a last resort option that hopefully will be improved in the future with culture of beta cells and genetic modification of the beta cell disease before autograft

Hyperinsulinisme persistant du nouveau-né et du nourrisson: traitement chirurgical des lésions pancréatiques focales dans 60 cas.

Congenital hyperinsulinism of infancy is a severe disease that leads to important brain damage. Two different forms of the disease have been identified by pathologists: a diffuse and a focal form. A specific genetic anomaly identified in focal forms has never been described in diffuse ones. However, for most of authors, failure of medical treatment results in near-total pancreatectomy in all cases, which ends in diabetus. The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the results of elective partial pancreatectomy performed in 60 cases of focal form of hyperinsulinism over the last 18 years. Fifty-eight patients were cured with euglycemia at both fasting and hyperglycaemic tests without insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. One patient is still in hypoglycaemia from unrecognized lesion; insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus occurred in one case nine years after surgery (a near-total pancreatectomy has been performed because of unknown focal form, in 1985)

Emergency management and conservative surgery of ovarian torsion in children: a report of 40 cases

The authors describe and discuss the clinical and therapeutic features of 40 ovarian torsions (OT) in children with its urgent treatment that has advanced in recent years

Neonatal hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia: heterogeneity of the syndrome and keys for differential diagnosis.

The two major forms of infantile persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia require different treatments, but are difficult to differentiate during surgery. Indeed, one is characterized by focal adenomatous hyperplasia often macroscopically invisible, whereas the other consists of a diffuse, but discreet, beta-cell abnormality. We evaluated, in a large series of persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia, the reliability of two criteria in differentiating these two forms: the mean beta-cell nuclear radius (MNR) and the beta-cell nuclear crowding, i.e. the number of nuclei per 1000 micron 2 beta-cell (BCNC). The values of the largest MNR and of BCNC in cases bearing a focal lesion (respectively, 3.27 microns +/- 0.25 and 14.62 +/- 1.78) were significantly different from those in the diffuse pathology (4.25 microns +/- 0.43 and 10.00 +/- 1.55). Setting the threshold value of MNR at 3.70 microns and that of BCNC at 12.00 enabled correct classification of 90.9% of the diffuse and 100% of the focal forms. beta-Cell nuclear analysis can thus contribute to a subclassification of the syndrome, not allowed by clinical or biological data. If performed during surgery it could help in determining the extent of pancreatectomy necessary to cure the patient, as the diffuse form, with abnormal nuclei in the whole pancreas, requires subtotal to near-total pancreatectomy, whereas the focal form, devoid of abnormal insular beta-cell nuclei, can be cured by partial pancreatectomy