Background: Conventional laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (DP) is now regarded as a safe, effective treatment modality; however, pancreatic transections are mostly believed to be somewhere between the body and tail of the pancreas. Laparoscopic DP, with its division at the pancreatic neck (subtotal pancreatectomy [STP]), is more challenging because there are major vascular structures, such as the celiac axis, coronary vein, and superior mesenteric vein-splenic vein-portal vein (SMV-SV-PV) confluence around the pancreatic neck portion to be dissected.
Patients and methods: Ten patients underwent laparoscopic STP with pancreatic division at the level of SMV-SV-PV confluence for benign and borderline pancreatic disease.
Results: Three patients were male and 7 were female, with a median age of 60 years (range, 28-73). All patients had benign or borderline malignant tumors in the body near the neck of the pancreas, with a median tumor size of 3 cm (range, 1-9.2). The operation time was a median of 287.5 minutes (range, 160-480). The intraopeative bleeding was a median of 300 mL (range, 100-700). Spleen preservation was carried out in 8 patients. Compared with open DP with the division of the pancreatic neck, a more frequent rate of spleen preservation (P = 0.004), longer operation time (P = 0.006), and early postoperative recovery presented by early intake of a soft diet (P = 0.001) and earlier discharge (P = 0.03) were significantly more frequent in the laparoscopic STP group. In a comparative study with laparoscopic DP, the longer segment of resected pancreas (P < 0.001), smaller amount of blood loss (P = 0.019), and high rate of spleen preservation (P = 0.019) were also noted in the laparoscopic STP group.
Conclusions: Laparoscopic DP with division of the pancreatic neck is considered feasible and safe.