Pancreatic Cyst Surgery Recovery Time

What You Should Expect

You will receive a thorough diagnostic examination to evaluate if you have pancreatic cysts and determine what course of treatment is needed. Careful monitoring and the involvement of an experienced general and gastrointestinal surgeon are important to the successful outcome for patients with pancreas conditions.

If you are having surgery or a procedure, you will likely be scheduled for a visit to the Weiner Center for Preoperative Evaluation for pre-operative information and tests.

The day of surgery, you will be taken care of in the operating room by surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses who specialize in pancreatic cyst surgery. After surgery, you will go to the post-surgical care unit where you will receive comprehensive care by an experienced surgical and nursing staff.

Learn more about your hospital stay and returning home.

What Is Pancreatic Cancer

This type of cancer is caused by a growth in your pancreas. The tumor usually grows in the head, neck or body of your pancreas. Few grow in the tail. Pancreatic cancer is primarily caused by smoking and most of those diagnosed are between the ages of 60 and 80 years.

Yearly in the U.S., about 57,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and there are around 46,000 deaths. Only roughly 8.5% of people with this type of cancer live for another five years after their diagnosis.

What To Expect During Recovery From The Whipple Procedure

There is no doubt that the Whipple procedure is a painful operation. This is largely due to the extent of the organs being removed or rearranged and the proximity of the pancreas to nerves as they exit the spine at the back of the abdomen during the operation. Overall, the Whipple procedure usually takes between 4 to 6 hours.

The wound over the midline of the abdomen, which is where the surgeon makes the incision, can be numbed with the insertion of filaments under the skin that release a numbing chemical, such as lidocaine. Pain medicine can also be given intravenously in the hospital and may be continued in pill form at the physicians recommendation upon their patients discharge. Talk with your doctor about what you can expect during your recovery from the Whipple procedure and what they recommend to help you manage pain.

Also Check: I Need Gallbladder Surgery And Have No Insurance

Common Pancreatic Surgery Complications

Most post-surgical complications arent life-threatening, but they still require close observation from your health care team. The most frequent complication from pancreatic surgery is leaking of pancreatic juices from the incision. You may also experience bleeding or an infection of the surgical site. For these reasons, your doctor will recommend that you remain in the hospital for four to 10 days, depending on the type of surgery youve had. While in the hospital, youll be given medications to help ease the pain of surgery.

After Your Pancreatic Surgery

The most common type of pancreatic surgery is called Whipple surgery. During this procedure, your surgeon will remove the head, or right-hand portion, of the pancreas, where most tumors occur.

Because of the location of this organ, he or she must also remove:

• Parts of the small intestine
• Sometimes, a portion of the stomach.

A new, less-invasive form of Whipple surgery uses a robotic device to more accurately guide surgical instruments in the abdomen. Whatever type of pancreatic surgery you have, youll experience some changes to your health and routine afterward.

Also Check: Leaky Gut Syndrome In Dogs

What To Expect After An Operation

As with all major operations, recovering from pancreatic surgery takes time. Full recovery requires an average of two months. Your recovery can be divided into different stages, each of which carry a different set of expectations. However, it is important to remember that every patient’s recovery is different, even patients undergoing the exact same procedure.

Hospital Recovery

Patients spend an average of 3-10 days in the hospital after pancreas surgery. While you are in the hospital, many members of your health care team will be checking in on you daily. Your in-house team consists of residents, medical students, nurses, and your surgeon. Your team will closely monitor your progress throughout your stay. You will be seen by residents and nurses several times each day and by your surgeon and/or one of our Pancreas Center surgeons at least once each day.

It is normal to experience pain after pancreas surgery. While in the hospital, you will be able to manage your pain with intravenous pain medication. Once you are at home, you will manage your pain with oral medications prescribed by your health care team.

Many people are eager to be discharged from the hospital after surgery, and your health care team will do everything they can to return you to your home life. Before we can discharge you, though, there are certain requirements you must meet. You should:

After Discharge

Post-Operative Dietary Guidelines

Surgery For Pancreatic Cancer

Two general types of surgery can be used for pancreatic cancer:

• Potentially curative surgery is used when the results of exams and tests suggest that its possible to remove all the cancer.
• Palliative surgery may be done if tests show that the cancer is too widespread to be removed completely. This surgery is done to relieve symptoms or to prevent certain complications like a blocked bile duct or intestine, but the goal is not to cure the cancer.

Also Check: What Are The Warning Signs Of Pancreatitis

How To Prepare For The Whipple Procedure

As the surgery profoundly changes the anatomy of the upper gut, it is often associated with a substantial amount of weight loss. Because of this, it is actually encouragedif possiblefor a person to gain weight prior to the operation.

Furthermore, the process of prehab to prepare for the surgery involves working to strengthen both the muscles of the abdominal wall and the hip flexors, the latter of which are important for walking. The more quickly a person can become mobile after the surgery, the lower their risk of complications following the operation, such as pneumonia, blood clots, or even bed sores.

What’s In The ‘surgery For Pancreatic Cancer’ Section

• Check-ups after surgery

You will be given the details of someone to contact if there are any problems. This is usually a specialist nurse. You can also speak to your GP for support, for example with pain relief. They may arrange for a district nurse to visit you at home to help with things like changing your wound dressing.

I found it useful to have a list of contacts and after hours contacts just in case something happens.

Don’t Miss: What To Take For Stomach Pain And Diarrhea

Eating And Drinking After Surgery

For the first few hours after surgery you wont be able to eat or drink anything. You will slowly start to drink and eat normally again, starting with drinks and then softer foods. Once you can manage this, you can slowly have more normal food.

You may be fed through a tube to begin with, or if you have problems eating normally. This gives your digestive system time to recover. The tube may go through your nose or through a small hole in your tummy. Not all hospitals use feeding tubes. If you have a leak where the pancreas, bile duct or stomach are joined to the small intestine you may need to have food into a vein for a few days.

You may see a dietitian after your surgery. They can give you advice on what to eat and how to maintain or put on weight. If you dont have a dietitian your nurse can help you with this. There are no foods which you should totally avoid. You may need to eat smaller portions, and need more calories and protein to help you put on weight and recover. After surgery, most people need to take pancreatic enzymes to help them digest food. A dietitian or your nurse can help this.

Is There A Surgery For Pancreatic Cysts

The treatment of any lesion of the pancreas is dependent upon various factors. It varies with the fact of whether the patient is symptomatic or asymptomatic. It is also dependent upon the severity, benign or malignant nature, size, metastasis, type of lesion, etc.

If the pancreatic cyst patient is asymptomatic and the lesion is also benign then there is no need to remove the cyst and the management is just waiting and watch. But at the same time, if the patient is asymptomatic but the lesion is malignant with increased risk of developing metastasis, there is no place for the wait and watch strategy and it has to be operated as soon as possible.

If the pancreatic cyst patient becomes symptomatic in cases of benign lesions then a conservative strategy can be used. Pseudocyst and serous cystadenomas of large size with the symptomatic patient can be drained via needle puncture and aspiration of the contents could be done with the help of ultrasonographic marking of the site. If the patient is suffering from a malignant cystic lesion of the pancreas and the symptoms have begun to rise then it is a sign of poor prognosis and has to be investigated as soon as possible to look for the extent of the disease.

Also Check: How To Get Rid Of Stomach Pouch

How Long Does Full Recovery Take For Pancreas Surgery

by Dr. Albert Amini | Jul 13, 2021 | Pancreatic Diseases

While modern medicine and technology make successful pancreas surgery more possible now than ever before, it is important for patients to understand that pancreatectomy, Whipple surgery, and other pancreas procedures are still complex, involved, and require a fairly extensive recovery period. The highly acclaimed team of experts at Arizona Premier Surgery is experienced in even the most difficult cases and is committed to giving patients the highest level of treatment and care possible before, during, and after pancreas surgery in Gilbert, Chandler, or Scottsdale, AZ. Learn more about what to expect after your pancreas surgery, including how long recovery may take.

What To Expect After Surgery

Recovery time after surgery varies based on the procedure and your health. Some people may require supportive care in the hospital for weeks or longer until their condition stabilizes and the pancreas begins to function normally. During this time, NYU Langones intensive care specialists and nursing team carefully monitor you and provide supportive care, including pain management as necessary.

Don’t Miss: Why Does All My Fat Go To My Stomach

Options To Remove Cysts In Pancreas

Without treatment, the cysts in his pancreas would almost certainly have progressed to pancreatic cancer, Del Chiaro said. Prevention and early detection are important for all cancers, but especially so for pancreatic cancer, which had an improving but still low five-year survival rate of just 9.3 percent for the period 2009-2015, according to the National Cancer Institute. By comparison, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer, the number-one cancer killer, was 19.4 percent for the same period.

Had Page not gotten the MRI for the liver lesion, its unlikely he would have discovered the IPMN, as he experienced no symptoms. The element of luck involved is all too common, said Del Chiaro, who noted he has recently operated on several patients who tell a story similar to Pages. Its why it is important that providers tell patients of any unusual finding on an image of the pancreas. Patients who receive the news should visit a medical center that is dedicated to treating pancreatic disease and can recognize the often subtle signs of it, he added.

Recognizing a lesion is part of prevention of pancreatic disease, Del Chiaro said. But you cannot identify it if you cannot recognize it.

What Support Will I Need At Home

When you first go home you will need to take things easy as you will get tired. You will need help with things like shopping and cleaning. Ask family and friends if they can help.

You may need to have injections of blood thinning medicines to prevent a blood clot. Your nurse will show you how to do these injections yourself. If you need help, let them know. They can arrange for a district nurse to help you at home.

Slowly increase how much you do and make sure you move around during the day, even if its just around the house to begin with. This can help with your recovery and reduce the risk of blood clots.

If you think you need some extra help at home, tell your nurse. They should be able to arrange for social services to look at what help you need. Most people manage well at home and dont need extra help.

Recommended Reading: How Much Serotonin Is Made In The Gut

What Happens After Surgery

The aftermath is neither suspenseful nor anticlimactic. This is because the post-pancreatic surgery experience can be obviously hard to come to terms with.

Theres no denying it that it is a major operation and major operations will also involve risks and complications.

Complications after pancreatic surgery such as the leakage of pancreatic juices from the incision and drastic changes to your digestive system are to be expected.

An aspect to focus more on is that such procedures will extend your life span and make you healthier. This is the thought which a patient and their family should focus on when the former awakens after the surgery.

A fact that most people might not be aware of is that if a patient is diagnosed with diabetes before a pancreatic surgery, their blood sugar levels will improve and stabilize more than ever after the operation!

Be prepared to be kept in the hospital for a considerable amount of time so that you can recover under expert guidance. You may also develop weakness or temporary diarrhea after surgery.

Role Of Laparoscopy In Pancreatic Surgery

The first open pancreatic papillectomy was performed by Halstead in 1898 and the same year Codivilla performed a one-stage pancreatico-duodenectomy.8,9 A two-stage pancreatico-duodenectomy was first described 14 years later by Kausch. In the 1930s and early 1940s pancreatic surgery made significant strides and Taylor performed a body and tail resection in 1934. In 1935 the father of pancreatic surgery Whipple presented a case series of 80 pancreatic ampullary tumours, which included 2 two-stage pancreatico-duodenectomies. He then described the one stage procedure in 1941, which was subsequently described as Whipple’s Procedure by Hunt and later in the 1940s Preistley performed a total pancreatectomy for pancreatic cancer. Since the 1940s although developments in operative techniques have evolved relatively slowly, pancreatic resections are now routine in specialist units albeit remaining a skilled procedure.

The complexity of pancreatic surgery has meant that the development of more invasive laparoscopic techniques and particularly formal resections has been relatively slow compared with procedures in many other surgical specialties. Consequently its incorporation into regular clinical practice is recent and indications remain unclear as a result of the lack of a large series and long-term results. A number of factors are responsible for these delays and have conspired against the development of an accepted laparoscopic approach and clear guidelines in pancreatic surgery:

Don’t Miss: Dr Berg Gallbladder Formula Review

How Is An Sebaceous Cyst Removed

An incision is made into the cyst-covering skin to enable your dermatologist access. In certain cases, the cyst may be removed first, followed by the sac.

This prevents the need for a broader incision that may cause scars.

All cyst remains will be removed simultaneously, and you will be sutured. This method removes sebaceous cysts with little chance of recurrence.

What To Expect During A Distal Pancreatectomy

Before the procedure, you will be given a general anesthesia, so you will be asleep. During the procedure, your doctor will fill your abdomen with gas to give your surgeon greater visibility of the pancreas and abdominal cavity. Your surgeon will insert two sets of tubes through your nose, into the stomach. The tubes are used to help prevent nausea/vomiting and help fluids drain out during the surgery and during recovery.

After the tubes are in position, your doctor will make three incisions in the abdominal wall. He will insert a camera into one incision, surgical equipment into another and his hand into the last one. If the tumor is still operable, your surgeon will remove the tumor. In some cases, your doctor will need to remove the spleen as well. The entire procedure will take approximately four hours.

Also Check: How To Lose Beer Gut

Surgery & Endoscopic Procedures For Pancreatitis

Sometimes, acute pancreatitis is caused by gallstones that block the duct through which digestive enzymes leave the pancreas. NYU Langone pancreatic surgeons can perform an endoscopic procedure to remove the blockage, allowing the pancreas to function normally. Our doctors may also perform surgery to relieve severe complications of acute pancreatitis, such as infection and tissue death, also called necrosis.

For chronic pancreatitis, surgery may be recommended if chronic inflammation has caused a blockage in the pancreatic ducts. Surgery can help prevent further damage to the pancreas and alleviate symptoms like persistent pain.

Pancreatic surgeons at NYU Langone work as a team with imaging specialists using advanced diagnostic techniques to locate the areas of the pancreas where damage has occurred. For many people, surgery can be performed using minimally invasive, or laparoscopic, techniques, which require smaller incisions. General anesthesia is typically used for all of the following procedures.

What Should I Expect From A Laparoscopic Distal Pancreatectomy

• You receive general anesthesia, meaning you will be asleep for the procedure.

• Your abdomen is filled with gas to expand the area and allow your surgeon to see the abdominal cavity better.

• Your surgeon inserts a tube through your nose and into your stomach to prevent nausea and vomiting. Your surgeon also inserts drainage tubes to aid with drainage of fluids that are produced during surgery and recovery.

• Your surgeon makes three small incisions. The first is for a small camera that allows your surgeon to see the pancreas and surrounding area the second is for surgical instruments and the third is for your surgeon’s hand.

• Before continuing, your surgeon needs to make sure the cancer has not spread and that the tumor is still operable.

• Your surgeon removes the cancerous part of your pancreas, and if necessary, the spleen.

• The surgery takes between three to four hours.

You May Like: Detox For Liver And Kidneys