Pancreaticoduodenectomy for ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head with venous resection

Background Recent reports have shown that patients with vascular tumour invasion who undergo concurrent vascular resection can achieve long-term survival rates equivalent to those without vascular involvement requiring pancreaticoduodenectomy alone. There is no consensus about which patients benefit from the portal-superior mesenteric vein resection and there is no consensus about the best surgical technique of vessel reconstruction (resection with or without graft reconstruction). As published series are small the aim of this study was to evaluate our experience in pancreatectomies with en bloc vascular resection and reconstruction of vessels.