Whipple Procedure....One Place to Go

              

   Advances in General Surgery  reduce morbidity and mortality

The Whipple procedure, a surgery in which a tumor is removed from the pancreas, used to have a mortality rate of 25 percent 25 years ago, says Dr. John Cameron, the Alfred Blalock Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery atThe Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The procedure involves surgeons removing a third of the pancreas, most of a part of the small intestine, a portion of the bile duct, the gallbladder and associated lymph nodes. 

It takes about six hours to complete, and most patients stay in the hospital for one to two weeks afterward. Hopkins performs more pancreas cancer surgeries than any other institution in the country, and has brought the mortality rate down to 2 percent, according to its website. Cameron has performed more Whipple procedures than anyone in the world. "It's the only operation I do," he says.

Attribution ( U.S.News )