Patient Information
Surgeries: Chronic Pancreatitis: Total Pancreatectomy
Removal of the entire pancreas is utilized on occasion to treat chronic pancreatitis when other treatments are unsuccessful. This operation has no additional complication rate compared to the Whipple procedure. Removal of all the insulin-producing cells of the entire pancreas may cause a form of diabetes that is difficult to manage. Total pancreatectomy can be combined with transplantation of the patient's own insulin-producing cells in order to keep the patients from becoming diabetic.
Page last updated
12/04/2007
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