Laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy for a metastatic tumor in a portal annular pancreas

Portal annular pancreas (PAP), also called circumportal pancreas, is a congenital pancreatic anomaly in which the portal and/or mesenteric veins are surrounded by pancreatic parenchyma [1,2]. Joseph et al. classified PAP into three types (according to the fusion pattern of the pancreatic parenchyma and ductal system [1]), each of which they subdivided (based on the relation to the portal confluence) into the suprasplenic, infrasplenic, and mixed type [1,3]. The most common type is IIIa [1,4], where the portal vein (suprasplenic) is encased by the uncinate process with an anteportal main pancreatic duct.The patient was a 78-year-old woman who had undergone left nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma five years prior. We performed laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy for a metastatic tumor of the head of a type IIIa PAP (Fig. 1). The anteportal pancreas was transected, and dissection was performed around the superior mesenteric artery using a right approach. The retroportal pancreas was transected using a linear stapler with bioabsorbable polyglycolic acid felt. We performed pancreatojejunostomy for the anteportal stump of the pancreas containing a main pancreatic duct; the retroportal stump was not reconstructed, because it had no major pancreatic ducts on preoperative imaging.The operative time was 505 minutes, and the blood loss was 70 ml. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patients was discharged on postoperative day 12.Laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy was performed successfully in a patient with a type IIIa PAP. The retroportal pancreas can be transected using a linear stapler, without reconstruction.