Surgical diseases of the liver, bile ducts, and pancreas are traditionally described as a unified chapter of surgery. This is because they form a closely related anatomical system of organs in the upper abdomen, both in terms of surgical anatomy and functional physiology.
The most common surgical condition of this system is cholelithiasis (the presence of cholesterol stones within the gallbladder), which is now treated laparoscopically. Diagnosis is made with a simple abdominal ultrasound in patients who present with symptoms such as upper abdominal pain (epigastralgia) accompanied by nausea and vomiting, especially after a fatty meal. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the therapeutic approach, including for polyposis of the gallbladder (adenomyomatosis of the gallbladder).
The management of neoplastic diseases of the liver, bile ducts, and pancreas is the pinnacle of gastrointestinal oncology surgery, as it typically requires the most complex and specialized procedures. Clinical suspicion of such conditions arises from specific symptoms (jaundice – yellowish skin color, weight loss), while diagnosis is confirmed through extensive laboratory (liver biochemistry, cancer markers) and imaging tests, including abdominal CT and MRI (distinguishing between solid and cystic formations).
At the Specialized Department of Surgery at the Mediterranean Hospital of Cyprus, comprehensive preoperative clinical and laboratory assessments for these conditions are conducted, and a full range of liver, bile duct, and pancreatic surgeries are performed:
- Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy
- Bile Duct Exploration
- Hepatectomy for benign and malignant liver diseases
- Pancreatectomy (Whipple procedure, distal pancreatectomy, total pancreatectomy)