title: Whipple procedure: a review of a 7-year clinical experience in a referral center for hepatobiliary and pancreas diseases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pancreatic cancer is generally found in the older population Pancreaticoduodenectomy seems to be the only way in resolving these resectable tumors. Allen. O Whipple was the first to describe pancreaticoduodenectomy in 1935 as a modified procedure. This article is a case series with respect to the 7-year experience of the Whipple procedure in Firoozgar Teaching Hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patient surgery details were gathered from the surgical records of the operating room and their clinical records from the hospital archives. Data was analyzed with SPSS software (version 16.0.1). Those patients, whose tumor had invaded the superior mesenteric artery, had extensive portal vein involvement or distant metastasis was considered as unresectable.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The first Whipple procedure was recorded in our hospital in 2008. From 2008 till 20 March 2014, 70 cases were collected and analyzed. The mean age of cases was 58.4 years, the mean hospital stay length was 12.9 days (±6.23 days), mean operation time was 376 min (±37.3 min),. The most common presenting symptom was jaundice (78.6 %). Delayed gastric emptying was the most common post-operative complication. The most prevalent cause of reoperation was intra-abdominal abscess. Major morbidities of these patients consisted of cardiac arrhythmias (21.4%) and pneumonia (10%). Minor complications were wound infection (17.1%) and delayed gastric emptying (32.9%). The statistics revealed pancreatic anastomosis failure as 2.9% and a decrease in mortality rate from 50% during the first years of this study to 16% to 20% during the last years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this case series, the time of operation decreased during the recent years .Analysis shows a correlation between operation time and pack cell transfused during the operation, but no correlation was found between operation time and post-operation hospitalization course. It is true that hospital setting, socioeconomic level of the patients including their compliance, and the expertise of the surgeons and surgical staff can have an influence on the result of this operation, but it seems that the magnitude of the surgical stress of this procedure and the (compromised) functional reserve of this patient population can be a notable factor influencing the outcome.
authors.affiliation: Iran University of Medical Sciences, Firoozgar General Hospital Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Dr.A.Saraee@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saraee
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Firoozgar General Hospital, Tehran, Iran. jalvahedian@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Jalal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vahedian-Ardakani
authors.affiliation: Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Ehasan@saraee.ir.
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saraee
authors.affiliation: Shahed University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. pakzad.roshanak@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Roshanak
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pakzad
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Firoozgar General Hospital, Tehran, Iran. baghaiw@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Massoud Baghai
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Wadji
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001660:Biliary Tract Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016577:Pancreaticoduodenectomy / Q000401:mortality*; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011379:Prognosis; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012086:Reoperation; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors