Extent and ideas about regional lymphadenectomy for pancreatic head carcinoma

Pancreatic carcinoma is a common malignancy of the digestive system, which has poor prognostic results because of its characteristics of lymphatic metastasis and perineural metastasis. Radical resection is considered as the only possible way to cure this malignant disease. As a part of the radical resection, regional lymphadenectomy has gained lots of attention, while there is no consensus regarding the extent of regional lymphadenectomy and the role of combined vessel resection. Recently, the artery first approach and total mesopancreas excision have probed a new direction for the research of regional lymphadenectomy for pancreatic head carcinoma.