Pancreas removed and reconstructed in a 73-year-old oncology patient operated on at Maggiore Hospital in Parma

After eight hours in the operating room, the team from the General Surgery Clinic successfully completed, using robotic technique, a complicated operation to remove and reconstruct the pancreas, duodenum, and bile ducts on an oncology patient being treated at the specialist center of the Parma University Hospital.

In the literature, explains Maggiore in a note, it is called a duodenopancreatectomy and is considered one of the most complex abdominal surgery operations.

The 73-year-old woman, from outside the region and with family members living in Parma, had a good postoperative course and is now continuing her treatment at the Maggiore hospital centers.

The operation, performed with minimally invasive robotic technique, was carried out by Professor Raffaele Dalla Valle and Dr. Maurizio Iaria, both from the General Surgery Clinic, directed by Professor Paolo Del Rio, together with Dr. Cristiana Madoni and Dr. Andrea Bonetti from the second Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit, directed by Professor Elena Bignami, and the nurses and staff of the West Wing operating unit.

"The reasons for the difficulty of the operation," explains Professor Dalla Valle, head of the Oncological Surgery program specializing in hepato-bilio-pancreatic surgery, "lie mainly in the anatomical location, the number of reconstruction procedures, and the management of possible complications. We began first by removing the head of the pancreas, part of the stomach, and the bile duct, all severely compromised by the tumor; then we performed the reconstruction, reconnecting the pancreas, bile duct, and stomach to the intestine."

"The robot," concludes Dalla Valle, "in these types of operations is of great help because it allows us to access particularly complicated anatomical sites with less difficulty, and thanks to augmented reality it offers us an exceptional visual field. In the last two years, we have performed 25 operations on the liver and pancreas using robotic technique."

"In our case," adds Dr. Iaria, "both phases of the operation, the removal and the reconstruction, were performed using minimally invasive robotic technique. To perform operations of such complexity, solid experience in laparoscopic and pancreatic surgery is required by the operators."

"A special thanks," specifies Massimo Fabi, general director of the University Hospital Company, "goes to the entire team for carrying out this difficult operation. We are proving with facts," concludes Fabi, "that we know how to manage the pandemic situation, intervene on all other diseases, and on highly complex cases with excellent results. All the staff of our city hospital confirm themselves as highly specialized and they are the real added value of our local healthcare. A healthcare system that must be an example for everyone. Let us never forget that."

Original Article:
https://parma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/11/27/news/tumore_del_pancreas_eseguito_con_tecnica_robotic...