Pancreatic Problems
The pancreas is a gland behind your stomach and infront of your spine.
Overview
It produces juices that assist with breaking down the food and hormones that assist with controlling sugar levels. Issues with the pancreas can lead to numerous health issues.The assessment of pancreatic diseases can be hard because of the unreachability of the pancreas. There are different techniques to assess the pancreas. Initial tests of the pancreas incorporate a physical examination, which is not easy since the pancreas is deep in the abdomen close to the spine. Blood tests are helpful in deciding if the pancreas is involved with a particular symptom yet might be misleading.
Pancreatic Surgeries
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Acute pancreatitis: activated pancreatic enzymes leak into pancreatic substance and cause auto digestion of pancreas. Usually due to gallstones, alcohol and idiopathic. usually managed with conservatively and sometimes require surgery.
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Chronic pancreatitis: chronic inflammatory condition that is multifactorial in etiology like alcohol and Gallstones which leads to severe pain, diabetes mellitus, maldigestion and later on cancer of pancreas. Patient can be managed on medical therapy and require surgery like freys procedure in certain conditions like severe intractable pain and suspicion of cancer.
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Periampullary cancer: include pancreatic head malignancy, distal bileduct cancer, ampullary cancer and duodenal cancer. Patients presented with jaundice, itching, pale coloured stools and weight loss and loss of appetite. Patients requiring treatment undergo whipple procedure in case of resectable carcinoma.
What are the common surgeries?
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Whipple procedure
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Distal pancreatectomy
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Central pancreatectomy.
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Laparoscopic cysto gastrostomy or cystojejunostomy.
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Laparoscopic pancreatic necrosectomy and drainage.
Common symptoms might include:
- Pain upper abdomen and central abdomen
- Loss of weight
- Loss of appetite
- Jaundice
- Fever, nausea, vomiting