Management of periampullary carcinoma.

Forty-one patients presented to our hospital between 1959 and 1983 with periampullary carcinoma. Twenty-six (63 per cent) underwent radical surgery, eight (20 per cent) local excision of the tumour, six (15 per cent) had bypass procedures and one was treated by endoscopic sphincterotomy (2 per cent). Potentially curative resection was performed in 83 per cent of the 41 patients. The operative mortalities for radical, local and bypass surgery were 7.7 per cent, 25 per cent and 16.6 per cent respectively. The degree of tumour differentiation significantly affected survival while local spread did not significantly affect survival in patients treated radically. The 5 year survival rates (calculated actuarially) for radical, local and bypass surgery were 34, 44 and 0 per cent respectively.