ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The process of pancreatic regeneration, well known and accepted, is less known than the hepatic and includes different mechanisms and factors. Pancreatic regeneration is better known in acute pancreatitis. After an extensive pancreatic necrosis, the morphological and functional regeneration is assessed by dynamic computed tomography associated with normalization of glycemia and the exocrine function. Different groups identified and evaluated experimentally and clinically the actions of multiple factors involved in the process of pancreatic regeneration. Even difficult to assess, pancreatic regeneration after partial pancreatectomy is well documented and of capital importance. CASE REPORT: A 57-year-old woman with discomfort in the upper-left abdominal quadrant. CT scans showed a tumor in the body and tail of the pancreas adherent to the spleen. Preoperative CA 19-9 was normal. She was operated on and the tumor resected en bloc with the spleen. Only the head of the pancreas was preserved. Intraoperative pathological examination of the specimen showed a mucinous cistoadenoma with no malignant degeneration. Postoperative course was uneventful and discharged at p.o. day 10, with ongoing diabetes. Four month later she presented pain in the upper-left quadrant with hyperamylasemia. CT scans showed a normal body and tail with an image of pseudocyst at the top of the pancreatic tail. One year after the initial surgery she remained asymptomatic, without diabetes and with no dietary restrictions. Further CT controls showed images of the entire regeneration of the body and tail of the pancreas...