A Case of Laparoscopy-assisted Resection of the Pancreatic Body and Tail with Splenectomy for Intra Abdominal Desmoid Tumor

Toshiki Yamakawa, Yuji Onoda, Taeko Mizo, Takayuki Muraoka, Masaki Tokumo and Ichio Suzuka

Department of Surgery, Kagawa Prefectural Central Hospital

We report a case of laparoscopy-assisted resection of the pancreatic body and tail with splenectomy for an intraabdominal desmoid tumor that was difficult to definitively diagnose preoperatively. A 21-year-old woman seen for an intraabdominal tumor detected in computed tomography (CT) had no history of abdominal surgery, injury, or familial adenomotous polyposis. The tumor occupied the pancreatic tail and protruded toward by CT, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasonography. The diagnosis was a benign tumor, but surgery was undertaken to make a pathological diagnosis. The tumor, anterior to the pancreatic body and tail, had not invaded the surrounding organs, but peritoneal dissemination and swelling of the lymph nodes were seen. We conducted laparoscopy-assisted resection of the pancreatic body and tail with splenectomy because the tumor could not be separated from the pancreas. The postoperative histopathological diagnosis was a desmoid tumor that grew apparently protruding from the pancreatic capsule. Desmoid tumor is histopathologically benign but clinically borderline because it recurs locally and grows invasive by, requiring careful follow-up.

Key words
desmoid tumor, laparoscopic assisted surgery, resection of pancreatic body & tail with spleen

Reprint requests
Toshiki Yamakawa Department of Surgery, Kagawa Prefectural Central Hospital
5-4-16 Ban-cho, Takamatsu, 760-8557 JAPAN

Accepted
November 18, 2009

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.