PubMedDate not supplied
A total of 198 tumours of the pancreas have been hospitalized between 1972 and 1987 in the 1st Surgical Clinic from Jassy. Only 10 of these tumours were benign, and these included: 2 gastrinomas, 2 insulinomas, 2 cystadenomas, one fibrolipoma, 1 lymphangioma, one hydatic cyst and a Wermer's syndrome. The particularities are analysed, of these 10 cases of benign tumours of the pancreas, and it is stressed that most of the clinical and therapeutic problems are determined by tumours of the endocrine pancreas, and especially those which are hormonally active. Thus the symptomatology of these last tumours which is difficult to evaluate, especially at the onset of the symptoms will determine a considerable delay in the surgical diagnosis, many of the patients being hospitalized in other departments before reaching the surgeon. Present possibilities for diagnosis and treatment have kept pace with progresses achieved in the field of investigations, which provide useful data from the morphological and functional viewpoints. All the 10 cases mentioned above have benefited from the surgical treatment, that was adapted according to particularities of each patient. The authors stress the importance of the extemporaneous morpho-histologic examination (with serial slides) and when the tumours are difficult to identify by direct macroscopic examination they recommend intraoperative echography and direct hormonal dosages on samples obtained from the portal circulation before and during surgery.