Surgical treatment of gastrinomas: a single-centre experience

Background Gastrinomas are rare neuroendocrine tumours, and responsible for ZollingerEllison syndrome (ZES). Surgery is the only treatment that can cure gastrinomas. The success of surgical treatment of gastrinomas in a single centre was evaluated. Methods A retrospective review of all patients who underwent resection for a gastrinoma between 1992 and 2011 at a single institution was performed. Presentation, diagnostics, operative management and outcome were analysed. Results Eleven patients with a median age of 46?years were included. All patients had fasting hypergastrinaemia and a primary tumour was localized using imaging studies in all patients. A pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy was performed in three patients: two patients underwent duodenectomy and one patient central pancreatectomy. The remaining five patients underwent enucleation. A primary tumour was removed in nine patients: five tumours were situated in the pancreas, three in the duodenum and one patient was considered to have a primary lymph node gastrinoma. The median follow-up was 3?years (range 115) after which 7 patients were disease-free and 3 patients had (suspected) metastatic disease. One patient died 13 years after initial surgery. Conclusion The success of surgical treatment of a gastrinoma in this series was 7/11 with a median follow-up of 3?years; comparable to recent published studies.