Robot-assisted whipple's operation for solid pseudopapillary tumour of pancreas

Solid pseudopapillary tumor is a rare tumor of the pancreas. They are slow growing with low malignant potential. The prognosis is excellent after surgical resection. Here we report a case of solid pseudopapillary tumor of the pancreas at the uncinate process. There are increasing interests about minimal access surgery for pancreatic lesion. However conventional laparoscopic Whipple's operation is technically difficult. With the benign characteristic of this tumor, as well as the advance in robotic surgery, robot assisted approach is an ideal alternative for this case. The operation was performed with a five-port approach with the use of da Vinci S Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA). The operative time was 420 min and operative blood loss was 100 ml. The post operative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged on post operative day 10. This case demonstrates the feasibility of robot assisted Whipple's operation, which has not been extensively reported in the literature. © 2012 Springer-Verlag London Ltd.