Pancreatic Surgery: Abstract and Introduction

Pancreatic Surgery: Abstract and Introduction

Introduction
Pancreatic surgery requires a detailed understanding of diseases and conditions of the pancreas and a multidisciplinary team dedicated to the care of pancreatic patients. A literature search on PubMed for pancreatic surgery revealed 1470 new publications the past year in the English literature. Some good news this year was revealed suggesting that the patients undergoing resection for pancreatic cancer may look forward to a 5-year survival rate of 35% - much higher than that reported in prior years. However, for surgical patients, obesity appears to engender a more aggressive malignancy. Unfortunately, each year the number of new cases of pancreatic cancer increases by 1000 to 1500 cases and now accounts for over 38 000 in the United States. In this review, we also highlight new reports on pancreatic endocrine neoplasms, cystic lesions of the pancreas, and both acute and chronic pancreatitis.