Roman Kyčina, Bjørn Edwin, Jozef Záň, Ľubomír Strelka, Ladislav Šutiak, Mária Drgová, Martina Bobrovská, Anton Mikolajčík, Martin Vojtko, Dušan Mištuna
Neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors are rare tumors with a relatively benign nature but its hormonal activity may cause the patient’s life-threatening complications. According to their occurrence they are divided into sporadic (mostly solitary) and familiar (usually multiple, simultaneously occurring in several endocrine glands, they are genetically determined). According to their functionality they are divided into functional and dysfunctional. Neuroendocrine tumors founded in the pancreas are indicated for surgical removal. Extent of tumor removal is depending on the nature and characteristics of the tumor, it can vary from enucleation of the tumor to radical resection of the distal pancreas, until now performed almost only by open surgical procedure. After a significant progression in the last decade, laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy has the chance to become the alternative for an open distal pancreatectomy. Similar to open procedure is very often combined with simultaneous removal of the spleen, but also brings significant benefit to the patient – minimally invasive procedure. The first successful laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy in Martin was performed in 2005; just now, after more than five years we successfully developed in this remarkable surgical procedure. The authors present two cases of non-functioning neuroendocrine tumors of the distal pancreas, both successfully removed by laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy.