Pancreatic Mucinous Ductal Ectasia A clinical study of four patients

ABSTRACT

Four cases of mucinous ductal ectasia of the pancreas are presented, along with a review of the literature. Mucinous ductal ectasia is a clinicopathologic entity characterized by dilation and filling of the main pancreatic duct or its side branches with thick, viscid mucus, leading to recurrent acute pancreatitis or symptoms that mimic chronic pancreatitis. Three of the patients were male (MF=31) and the patients were 54~74 years old. The symptoms of two patients were abdominal pain and they had a frequent admission history due to pancreatitis. One patient had jaundice, and one patient presented no symptoms. In all of the patients, the tumor was located in the read of the pancrease and the size of tumor was about 3 cm. A total pancreatectomy was performed, and three pancreatico-duodenectomy were performed. The pathologic report revealed that two cases were malignant and two cases were borderline malignant. The tumor marker did not correlate with the presence of malignancy. Because mucinous ductal ectasia is recognized as a premalignant disease, the treatment of choice is pancreatic resection.