The role of laparoscopy in the preoperative staging of pancreatic carcinoma.

Between January 1990 and December 1995, a total of 398 patients underwent laparotomy for pancreatic or periampullary carcinoma at the Surgical Clinic of Mannheim. The tumor was located in the pancreatic head in 290 patients (72.9%), in the body of the pancreas in 42 patients (10.6%), and in the pancreatic tail in 19 patients (4.7%). Forty-seven patients (11.8%) presented with periampullary carcinoma. The preoperative diagnostic workup included abdominal ultrasound, CT scan, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, and angiography. One hundred seventy-two patients (43.2%) underwent a tumor resection, 150 (37.7%) had a palliative bypass operation, and 76 (19.1%) underwent only an exploratory laparotomy. Preoperative diagnosis had predicted unresectability in 66 (87%) of the patients who underwent exploratory laparotomy. In 76 patients the intraoperative findings showed an unresectable tumor, which was located in the head of the pancreas in 54 cases (71%), in the body of the pancreas in 17 (22.4%), in the tail region in four (5.3%), and in the periampullary region in one (1.3%). Local signs of unresectability were found in 47 patients (62%) and peritoneal or hepatic metastases in 29 (28.2%). Given that local inoperability can be reliably assessed only at laparotomy, this leaves just 29 (7%) of 398 patients who did not require palliation and whose signs of unresectability could possibly have been discovered by means of the laparoscopic approach. Laparoscopy (including laparoscopic ultrasound) should be used selectively in patients considered probably unresectable who do not require a palliative procedure immediately before the planned operation.