ABSTRACT

Distal pancreatectomy is a surgical method used in the treatment of pancreatic tumors located in the body and tail. Although it is often applied together with splenectomy, spleen-preserving distal pancreatectomy surgical techniques have been developed upon revealing the benefits of spleen preservation in the early and late postoperative period. The two most frequently preferred surgical procedures are the Warshaw (by ligating the splenic vessels) and Kimura (preserving the splenic vessels) techniques. Considering complications like the length of operation and estimated blood loss, postoperative splenic infarction-abscess development, gastric varices formation, both techniques have superiorities over the other. Depending on the clinical characteristics of the patient, tumor and surgeon’s experience, either technique may be preferred as open or minimally invasive surgery. In this review, we aimed to present the spleen-preserving distal pancreatectomy surgical technique that we preferred for a lesion with suspected malignancy located in the pancreatic body-tail junction, in a 46-year-old male patient with no known comorbidity and who was examined as an outpatient with the complaint of abdominal pain.

Keywords: Distal pancreatectomy, Kimura technique, spleen preserving, Warshaw technique