A case of post-gastrectomy acute pancreatitis

Gastrectomy is commonly performed for both benign and malignant lesions. Although the incidence of post-gastrectomy acute pancreatitis (PGAP) is low compared to other well-recognized post-operative complications, it has been reported to be associated with a high mortality rate.

A clinical research team from Taiwan reported a case of asymptomatic pancreatic divisum who underwent palliative subtotal gastrectomy for an advanced gastric cancer with liver metastasis. Their study will be published on September 28, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Their research illustrated early detection and aggressive treatment of PGAP for patients with pancreas divisum or dominant duct of Santorini who fail to follow the normal post-operative course after gastrectomy might improve the prognosis.

Reference: Kuo IM, Wang F, Liu KH, Jan YY. Post-gastrectomy acute pancreatitis in a patient with gastric carcinoma and pancreas divisum. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(36): 4596-4600

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/4596.asp

Correspondence to: Dr. Keng-Hao Liu, Department of Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 5, Fu-Shin Street, Kweishan, Taoyuan, Taiwan, China.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.