Benign tumors of the ampulla of Vater; comparison of survival following local resection of benign and malignant ampullary tumors.

Abstract

THE RADICAL operation of pancreatoduodenectomy is the procedure of choice for carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater. The nature of cancer warrants this serious operation in spite of its high mortality and in spite of the fact that the operation may produce permanent nutritional disorders in the surviving patient. It is obvious that such a hazardous procedure should not be used as the surgical treatment of benign ampullary tumors. It should be possible to cure such tumors with a simple local transduodenal resection. This advice, simple in execution and logical in theory, is seldom followed in practice because the accurate histological differentiation between benign and malignant ampullary tumors is difficult, and not always possible from frozen sections taken at the time of operation. The first object of this presentation is to point out the existence of benign tumors of the ampulla of Vater and the microdiagnostic difficulties they may present.