Pancreaticoduodenectomy with multivisceral resection: Is it worthwhile? A 10-year experience at a tertiary care centre

Background: Patients with pancreatic cancer only have a chance of a cure through a curative resection. However, this is not performed in most patients because the tumour is widespread, multivisceral involvement is thought to be incurable, or the procedure is too risky. Aims: To evaluate the outcomes of pancreaticoduodenectomy with and without multi-visceral resections in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, specifically examining short-term outcomes and long-term survival rates. The study seeks to determine if patients who undergo more extensive surgery involving adjacent organs have a survival benefit despite higher operative mortality. Materials and Methods: We examined, from our prospectively maintained database, the outcome of patients between 2010 and 2020 who had undergone pancreatectomy for locally advanced lesions that also needed resection of one or more adjacent involved organs and compared their short-term outcome with those who underwent pancreatectomy alone and whether any of them survived years. Results: There were a total of 360 patients who underwent Whipple’s pancreaticoduodenectomy (WP) during the study period, of whom 343 patients (95%) had standard procedures and 17 patients (5%) had additional multivisceral resections (MVRs). The colon was the most frequently resected organ in 11 (65%) of the patients who had Whipples pancreaticoduodenectomy with multivisceral (WPMVR) resections. The overall mortality (in-hospital and long-term) was higher in the WPMVR group compared to the WP group (5/17, 30%) versus (22/343, 6%) ( P ≤ 0.05), and the morbidity was found to be comparable in both groups: 3 (18%) versus 158 (44%) ( P ≤ 0.05). However, of the 12 patients who had undergone WPMVR, to our surprise, seven survived for 5 years. Conclusions: Although patients with pancreatic cancer who undergo MVRs have higher operative mortality, a number, albeit small, may have long-term survival.