Abstract
Cancer of the pancreas is one of the most unfavorable in respect of the prognosis among cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. Especially, surgical operation of cancer evolving in the body and tail of the pancreas is highly unsuccessful and few papers have described concerning long-term survivals in Japan. The present paper is related to the postoperative course of total pancreatectomy in a patient now in good health even five and a half years after the surgical operation due to cancer of the body and tail of the pancreas. Preoperative chief complaint was epigastralgia without jaundice and the cancer cells were found in the pancreatic juice. The patient received total pancreatectomy at the Center for Adult Diseases, Osaka and was sent to the Department of Internal Medicine, Osaka-Minami National Hospital for postoperative control. The patient is satisfactorily controled with only 16 units of insulin daily (14 units in the morning and 2 units in the evening), which is lower dosage than that for severe primary diabetes. The blood sugar level shows considerable fluctuation and is apt to reach mild hypoglycemia even following low amount dosage of insulin.
Examination revealed disturbance of digestion and absorption of fat so that considerably large amount of pancreatic enzyme preparation is required. There are observed neither evidences of hyperlipemia nor other primary-diabetic alterations in the f undus, bones and others.
The patient is a 14-years-old man and still in relatively good health.
