Morbidity and mortality of pancreatic tumors undergoing surgical treatment

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer has a high mortality rate due to late diagnosis and aggressive behavior. The prognosis is poor, with 5-year survival occurring in less than 5% of cases. AIM: To analyze demographic characteristics, comorbidities, type of procedure and early postoperative complications of patients with pancreatic cancer submitted to surgical treatment. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with analysis of 28 medical records of patients with malignant tumors of the pancreas in a 62 month. Data collection was performed from the medical records of the hospital. RESULTS: Of the total, 53,6% were male and the mean age was 60.25 years. According to the procedure, 53,6% was submitted to duodenopancreactectomy the remainder to biliodigestive derivation or distal pancreatectomy. The ductal adenocarcinoma occurred in 82,1% and 92,9% of tumors were located in the pancreatic head. Early postoperative complications occurred in 64,3% of cases and the most prevalent was intra-abdominal abscess (32,1%). Among duodenopancreactectomies 77,8% had early postoperative complications. CONCLUSION: Its necessary to encourage early detection of tumors of the pancreas to raise the number operations with curative intent. Refinements in surgical techniques and surgical teams can diminish postoperative complications and, so, operative morbimortality can also decrease over time.