Aim is to present the limits of surgery, determined by the dimension of the tumor and vascular invasion, in the treatment of the icteric patients with pancreatic head cancer. This paper is a retrospective study realized in Timisoara City Hospital, Surgery Clinic, on 68 patients, hospitalized for icteric syndrome due to pancreatic head cancer. Surgery was performed in 66 patients: 4 (6%) pancreaticoduodenectomy, Whipple modified technique, 62 (94%) palliative surgery which consists in a biliodigestive shunt associated with a gastroenterostomy, and 2 patients were not operated. In palliative treatment, 10 (15%) patients had complications and 3 (4.5%) died within 1 month after surgery. In the case of the patients with duodenopancreatectomy, there was no morbidity or mortality. Survival after one year was 0% in palliative treatment and 100% in pancreaticoduodenectomy. In icteric patients due to pancreatic head cancer, the possibility of pancreaticoduodenectomy without vascular resection is reduced (6%). Modified Whipple technique was imposed by the dimensions of the tumor (more than 3 cm) and vascular invasion, determining in the first place, the dissection of the vascular tree: portal, mesenteric, caval; and pancreaticoduodenectomy was performed only if there was no invasion.