Question about Whipple Procedure

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What is a Whipple? A pt who has chronic pancreatitis told me he had decided to finally get a Whipple. This guy is in soooo much pain, on tube feedings and has lost 100 pounds.

Could someone please explain this to me? He said that Indiana does not even perform this surgery, that he has to go to Cincinnati to get it done. I take it that it is a very serious operation?

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Specializes in Trauma/ED.

I just typed "Whipple Procedure" into google and this site came up:

Whipple Procedure explanation

Another informative whipple site

It's very important to be able to find out information when necessary...if I were you I would get very comfortable with search engines and medical sites...just my opinion.

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I have had two whipple pts a few months back and was not sure what I was dealing with the first time. I went home after the first night and looked it up as I do most not understood procedures and placed it in my locker for future reference. Have not looked at it for a while and dont want to give mis information at this time but it is considered the last resort for pancreatic cancer pts where it takes several organs and reroutes them to drain into the intestines. I believe they are the pancrease and possibly the liver. My pts did not do real well post op and continue to come back often. My advise to the question is to always go home and look up not understood information you may need for future reference. It helps you educate your pts better in the future.

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i have heard before that this is one of the most technically difficult procedures for a surgeon to perform, and a google search found a lot of websites to back that up. interesting.

http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0299web/degree.html

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Specializes in trauma/ m.s..

I deal with this all the time and it is a procedure that is done mostly on people as a last resort who have pacreatic cancer. They remove a portion of the pancrease and I believe it's the head. It is very serious and many people end up on TPN for a time. Most of the people regardless of the procedure have lasting complications and are only sustaining their life for a short time.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

It's very important to be able to find out information when necessary...if I were you I would get very comfortable with search engines and medical sites...just my opinion.

Couldn't agree more. Google is our friend. Google has never let me down!

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Specializes in SICU, Anesthesia.

A whipple is a radical pacreatoduodenectomy with removal of the distal third of the stomach, the entire duodenum, and the head of the pancreas. These patients will also have a gastrojejunosomy, choledochojejunostomy and a panreatic jejunostomy. As previously mentioned, this procedure is usually done for pacreatic Ca.

I can tell you from experience these folks are usually sick, sick, sick for awhile...

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