PANCREATIC CYSTS

Abstract

Few clinical studies of large series of cysts of the pancreas have been reported in the literature, and only brief attention has been paid to the pathologic changes of this disease. Of 723,397 patients admitted at the Mayo Clinic, eighty-eight with cyst of the pancreas have been operated on. One of us,¹ in 1921, reported forty-one cases from the clinic, the largest original series recorded up to that time. This paper includes a review of the literature and a clinical survey, with comment, of the forty-seven patients treated surgically at the clinic since the report in 1921. A study of the etiology and pathology of this disease will be presented elsewhere. Morgagni,² in 1761, described multiple cysts on the pancreas, mesentery and omentum in a cadaver. Claessen,³ in 1842, reviewed a series of cases from the literature. "The treatment (of cysts of the pancreas) must be of