A Case of So Called "Deficiency of the Body and Tail of the Pancreas" with Solid Cystic Tumor in the Head of the Pancreas

Naoki Futamura, Atsuyoshi Onitsuka, Takuya Yamada, Ken-ichi Sakamoto, Mikio Yasumura, Hajime Hirose and Kuniyasu Shimokawa^*

First Department of Surgery and Department of Labolatory Medicine^*, Gifu University School of Medicine

A 28-year-old woman diagnosed with abdominal calcification in radiologic examination of the upper gastrointestinal tract was found by abdominal computed tomography to have a mass calcified at the head of the pancreas and adipose tissue on the ventral side of the splenic vein. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography found the short main pancreatic duct connected in an arch formed with the accessory pancreatic duct. Celiac arteriography showed the mass in the pancreatic head to be hypovascular and free of dorsal, transverse and great pancreatic arteries. She underwent surgery based on a diagnosis of solid cystic tumor (SCT) with deficiency of the body and tail of the pancreas. Surgery showed a hen's-egg-sized hard mass in the head of the pancreas and that adipose tissue morphologically similar to the pancreas was present at the site corresponding to the body and tail of the pancreas. The mass in the head of the pancreas was enucleated surgically and adipose tissue was biopsied. Histopathologically, the mass in the head of the pancreas was SCT, and no pancreatic tissue was found in adipose tissue. The patient was diagnosed as having SCT in the head of the pancreas with deficiency of the body and tail, in which it was difficult to differentiate congenital hypoplasia of the body and tail of the pancreas from their fatty replacement.

Key words
solid cystic tumor, congenital hypoplasia of the pancreas, fatty replacement of the pancreas

Reprint requests
Naoki Futamura Department of Surgery, Hashima City Hospital 3-246 Shinsei-cho, Hashima, 501-6206 JAPAN

Accepted
November 29, 2000

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