[The biological results of duodenocephalopancreatectomy. Clinical evaluations based on a long-term follow-up]

Abstract

The authors discuss the main features of the complex pathophysiology of patients subjected to duodenocephalopancreatectomy, and particularly the difficulties inherent in clinical assessment of the digestive and metabolic impairment consequent upon the duodeno-gastro-pancreatic mutilation. Out of a total of 57 cases of this description, they singled out for recheck 23 patients who had undergone duodenocephalopancreatectomy not less than six months and not more than seven years before (chronic pancreatitis, 11 cases; various malignancies of the periampullar area, 10 cases; Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, 1 case; retroperitoneal lymphoma, 1 case). Seventy-six per cent of patients who had been gainfully employed were able to resume their jobs after surgery. Steatorrhea, assessed in terms of fecal fats, was present in all cases; notwithstanding, 70% of the patients gained weight (average increase 7 kg). All patients were on enzyme replacement therapy. Only 4% developed diabetes, and none developed postoperative peptic ulcers. Conversely there was a high incidence (65%) of bone structure reshuffling, signally osteoporosis, probably imputable to steatorrhea and vitamin D malabsorption, plus the often associated increase of serum alkaline phosphatase activity.