Elton Watkins

Eighty-seven patients with neoplasm (57 cases), pancreatitis (28 cases), or benign biliary obstruction (2 cases) were treated with pyloric preserving pancreatectomy with two postoperative deaths, neither due to abdominal complications. About 50% of patients had delay in recovery of gastrointestinal function. Six and seven patients had clinically significant biliary and pancreatic fistulas, respectively, with some patients having both. Complications required 16 reoperations. Marginal ulcer was suggested by endoscopy or barium study in five patients, three of whom were successfully managed by a medical regimen. In the other two patients, exploration failed to demonstrate an ulcer or jejunitis. In most patients, long-term gastrointestinal function was judged to be excellent based on weight gain and lack of digestive symptoms. Pyloric function and gastric motility were evaluated by abdominal scanning using indium 111 and technetium 99m. Gastric emptying of liquids and solids was normal. Estimations of enterogastric reflux showed a moderate difference between normal subjects and pancreatectomy patients. Cancer-free survival was comparable to that after the standard Whipple procedure.

From July 2, 1971 to April 1, 1985, 47 patients (median age 63 years) with renal cell cancer extending into the renal vein or inferior vena cava were evaluated and treated. Two-thirds of the tumors occurred in men and three-fourths were found in the right kidney. Of the 44 patients operated on 35 had no evidence of preoperative metastatic disease at operation. The patients were divided into ideal, favorable and unfavorable subgroups. The adjusted 5 and 10-year survival rates in the former 2 groups (32 patients) were 68.8 and 60.2 per cent, respectively. In contrast, 12 patients with nodal involvement or metastases had an adjusted median survival time of 1.2 years with no survival extending beyond 4.8 years. We believe that an extended operation for renal cell cancer with involvement of the vena cava is warranted and provides reasonable long-term survival in properly selected patients.

No conventional form of therapy is of practical value in the management of patients with diffuse primary or secondary liver tumors. This is also true in most cases of cancer of the gallbladder or bile ducts. Approximately 20 to 30 per cent of patients with cancer of the colon or rectum die as a result of progressive liver metastasis although the primary lesion in the bowel has been or may be susceptible of control by surgical resection. Since these forms of cancer are often localized to the distribution of the hepatic artery it is important to evaluate the effects of . . .