Per-operative Exploration of the Peri-pancreatic Lymphatic Pathways During Pancreatic Surgical Resection

Extended description of the protocol, including more technical information (as compared to the Brief Summary) if desired. Do not include the entire protocol; do not duplicate information recorded in other data elements, such as eligibility criteria or outcome measures. (Limit : 32 000 characters) The prognosis and life expectancy for people with pancreatic cancer remain very low (3rd cause of mortality among all cancer). Surgical resection is the only curative treatment, whenever possible. Nevertheless, major pancreatectomies lead to high postoperative morbidity rate, in particular up to 30% fistula rate. In case of parenchyma-sparing procedures, this rate is even higher, up to 40%.

One of the reasons of these high rates might be explained by the fact that pancreatic transections are currently not performed following pancreatic segmentation. If possible, resection following vascular segmentation would prevent necrosis of the transection, resection following lymphatic segmentation would improve the lymph-node dissection, and resection following pancreatic-duct segmentation would prevent leakage from pancreatic duct stump. Nevertheless, no precise "anatomic" pancreatic segmentation currently exists.

On the other hand, the lymphatic system of the pancreas is highly complex, but the quality of the lymphadenectomy during pancreatectomy is essential since the recurrences almost always occur on the lymphatic transections. A better knowledge of the peri-pancreatic lymphatic vessels is still required.

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the existence of independent pancreatic segments, following the lymphatic drainage of the gland.