ABU DHABI // Doctors at Tawam Hospital have performed the UAE’s first laparoscopic Whipple operation on a pancreatic cancer patient.
The surgical procedure, also known as pancreaticoduodenectomy, was carried out on a 79-year-old male suffering from pancreatic tumours.
The six-and-a-half-hour operation was completed last week by a team of three surgeons – Dr Guido Mannaerts, chairman of department, Dr Ali Al Dameh, head of the general, thoracic and vascular surgery division, and Dr Omar Bekdache, general surgery specialist.
Dr Mannaerts said this was the first time the operation was carried out in the country and possibly the Gulf region.
“A procedure may be considered radical or unconventional but if that’s what it takes to improve our patients’ conditions, then we will do it,” he said.
“Thanks to the combination of very experienced oncological surgeons who also have the ability to perform hi-tech laparoscopic surgeries to a very high level, we managed to make a difference to our patient’s life.”
Traditionally, open surgery has been used for pancreatic cancer but the Whipple procedure greatly increases the chances of survival.
The laparoscopic procedure also results in less blood loss, pain and trauma to the abdominal wall as well as less chances of developing hernias.
There is also faster recovery for the patients, which means less time spent in the hospital.
The procedure involved the removal of the wide part of the pancreas next to the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine in the digestive tract.
The duodenum, common bile duct, gall bladder and if necessary, parts of the stomach were also removed.
The surgeons then reconnected the remaining intestine, bile duct and pancreas.
The surgery is named after Allen Whipple, the American surgeon who pioneered the technique in the 1930s.
arizvi2@thenational.ae
