A team at the Bellvitge Hospital in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) has become the first center in Spain to remove a pancreatic tumor that was previously considered inoperable, using an innovative surgical technique.
In this technique, resection of pancreatic head cancer with intraoperative venous bypass, a bypass is created between the vein that collects blood from the intestine and the vena cava before the tumor removal begins, the hospital reported in a press release on Wednesday.
This bypass ensures that blood continues to circulate during the time required to remove the tumor, thus avoiding damage to the intestine and liver.
The procedure is particularly useful in very specific cases involving the removal of a pancreatic tumor that is attached to venous or arterial branches and cannot be removed without transecting them. These tumors are referred to as “locally advanced pancreatic cancers” and were previously largely considered “inoperable.”
Smooth Surgery
The surgery, performed on March 5, went smoothly and allowed the patient to undergo surgery without transfusion: The bypass was active for 94 minutes, and normal blood flow was restored after tumor removal.
The patient was a 45-year-old man with a pancreatic tumor involving the linear, jejunal, and splenic veins, as well as other venous branches.
The patient was discharged seven days after the procedure without complications, underscoring the quality of the resection performed.
3D Model for Precise Planning
The successful performance of the surgery was made possible thanks to the prior development of an advanced three-dimensional surgical planning model. This model accurately reproduced the shape and location of the tumor, as well as the affected organs and vascular structures.
The surgeon was thus able to analyze the tumor situation in advance and determine the optimal surgical strategy.
