Necrosis of the duodenum resulting from acute necrotising pancreatitis and treated with complete duodenopancreatectomy

Abstract

Necrosis of the duodenum resulting from acute necrotising pancreatitis is a rare but potentially lethal complication. A small number of cases has been reported so far, the majority of which having, unfortunately, had a lethal outcome. We present the cases of two patients, a 21-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man, both suffering from extensive duodenal necrosis stemming from acute necrotising pancreatitis, and both cases involving the second and third sections of the duodenum, one of which was probably caused by the thrombosis of nutritive blood vessels, the other by an abscess of the head of the pancreas. Due to the extent of the necrosis of the duodenum, there was no option to close so large a hole or to employ any less drastic procedure, so that a complete duodenopancreatectomy had to be performed. One patient survived and has remained in good health for a period of almost ten years, to date. The other patient died six days after surgery due to infection, in spite of an abscence of any sort of anastomic complications.