Department of Surgery »  Conditions & Procedures »  Whipple Procedure
 
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Nancy L. Ascher, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor and Chair, UCSF Department of Surgery

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Legendary Surgeon Maurice Galante Dies

Maurice Galante, M.D., a legendary master surgeon at UCSF and renaissance man, died on February 5, 2013. His career is memorialized by the Maurice Galante Lecture Program and Maurice Galante Distinguished Professorship.

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16th Annual Maurice Galante Lecture Featuring Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell, a staff writer with The New Yorker and noted cultural icon, was the featured speaker for the annual  Galante Lecture Series on February 22, 2013.

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Pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple Procedure)

Pancreas_and_Nearby_OrgansThe Whipple procedure, also called a pancreaticoduodenectomy, is performed to treat the following conditions:

  1. Pancreatic Cancer
  2. Neuroendorince (slet Cell) Tumors
  3. Chronic Pancreatitis
  4. Cancer of the ampulla of Vater (ampullary cancer)
  5. Duodenal cancer
  6. Cancer of the distal (lower portion) of the bile duct.

In the Whipple procedure, the surgeon removes cancerous parts of the pancreas, duodenum, common bile duct, and if required, portions of the stomach. 

 

 

pancreas_duodenum_and_small_intestine

The pancreas is  an organ about the size of a hand located in the abdomen in the vicinity of the stomach, intestines, and other organs. It lies behind the stomach and in front of the spine. The pancreas has two critical functions in the body:

  1. The production juices that help digest food
  2. The production of hormones such as insulin and glucagon that maintain optimal blood sugar levels and help the body  use and store energy from food.

 

Note: The information above was reproduced or derived from the following public domain sources: The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC) http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/index.htm, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Reference Collection, and MedlinePlus, a service of the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Any images bearing the NCI logo, were reproduced, in whole or in part, from the websites of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at http://www.cancer.gov/, the originator of the content. Any modifications to the content on this page, including explanatory or supplemental material, were added to enhance the reader's understanding.

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