Laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy: extensive learning curve, marginal benefits

The introduction of laparoscopic surgery has come with substantial benefits for patients, treating physicians, and health-care systems. Among these benefits are decreased blood loss, quicker recovery, and shorter hospitalisation times, but these apply to selected patients and procedures. Whether these benefits can be extrapolated to major hepatopancreatobiliary surgery, encompassing complex dissection, substantial intra-abdominal trauma, and healing responses that probably outweigh surgical access trauma, is a question of high topicality and relevance, particularly for laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy (LPD).