Surgical objectives in unresected cancer of the head of the pancreas

Abstract

Abstract Twenty-seven patients with obstructive jaundice due to unresected cancer of the pancreas have been reviewed. The surgical objectives in treating this sort of patient were taken as the need to make a positive diagnosis and to palliate until death. There was failure to establish the diagnosis of cancer at operation (17 patients), failure to attain permanent biliary decompression (1 patient), failure to anticipate duodenal obstruction (3 patients), and failure to relieve pancreatic pain (8 patients). As a result of this review we have evolved a set of guide-lines which should be considered when treating patients with irresectable cancer of the pancreas.