TOTAL PANCREATECTOMY FOR CARCINOMA OF THE PANCREAS IN A DIABETIC PERSON

Abstract

WE ARE presenting a case in which total pancreatectomy was performed for carcinoma of the pancreas developing in a diabetic patient. At the time when this paper was written, twelve months after operation, the patient was living and well. Cases of total pancreatectomy in which the patient is living and well as long as twelve months after operation are sufficiently rare to justify presentation. In fact, we know of only 1 other such case, that of Priestley, Comfort and Radcliffe,¹ in which the patient was living and well eighteen months after operation. Our case is of interest further in that the patient was diabetic before the development of carcinoma and before operation.² Our patient presented an opportunity to make certain observations on the effect of total loss of internal and external pancreatic secretions on metabolic processes. We are presenting data, incomplete as they are, on the formation of