Laparoscopic surgery for benign lesions of the pancreas.

Background: Minimally invasive pancreatic surgery, although known to be feasible and safe, is still not considered a standard procedure. We report our experience with laparoscopic pancreatic surgery in a retrospective case series. Materials and Methods: Fifteen consecutive patients (3 male, 12 female) underwent primarily laparoscopic pancreatic surgery from February 2000 to June 2005. Histologically confirmed diagnoses were: neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors (n = 11), adult nesidioblastosis (n = 1), serous cystadenoma (n = 1), and pseudocysts due to chronic pancreatitis (n = 2). Results: Enucleation (n = 3) or left pancreatic resection with spleen preservation (n = 6) was performed laparoscopically in 9 patients. The mean (±standard deviation) operative time was 173 ± 48 minutes (range, 120–250 minutes) and the mean postoperative hospital stay was 5.5 ± 1.2 days (range, 5–8 days) for the laparoscopic cases. Conversion to open surgery was necessary in 6 patients because of: closeness of the lesion to the po...