Can you live without your pancreas




















It was right here and would radiate around to the back. Once her doctor diagnosed her with chronic pancreatitis, he removed the entire organ. And then he harvested clusters of cells, which help Jan control her blood sugar, and grafted them back into her liver.

The successful surgical strategy gave Jan and her husband a pain-free return to the sport they love … and the only thing missing is her pancreas. Jan is treated like a Type two diabetic and relies on an insulin pump to keep her blood sugar levels under control.

The two main functions of the pancreas are an exocrine function that helps digestion and an endocrine function that regulates blood sugar. Exocrine enzymes include trypsin and chymotrypsin to digest proteins; amylase for the digestion of carbohydrates; and lipase to break down fats. The endocrine component of the pancreas consists of islet cells that create and release important hormones directly into the bloodstream. Your outlook will depend on the condition you have.

One study found that the seven-year survival rate after surgery for people with noncancerous conditions like pancreatitis was 76 percent. But for people with pancreatic cancer, the seven-year survival rate was 31 percent. The pancreas is a gland located in your abdomen, underneath your stomach. Surgery to remove your whole pancreas is called a total pancreatectomy.

Because other organs sit close to your pancreas, the surgeon may also remove:. You may need to go on clear liquids and take a laxative the day before your surgery. This diet cleans out your bowels. You may also need to stop taking certain medicines a few days before surgery, especially blood thinners like aspirin and warfarin Coumadin.

After your pancreas and other organs are removed, your surgeon will reconnect your stomach and the rest of your bile duct to the second part of your intestine — the jejunum. This connection will allow food to move from your stomach into your small intestine. If you have pancreatitis, you may have the option of getting an islet auto transplant during your surgery. Islet cells are the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin.

In auto transplantation, the surgeon removes the islet cells from your pancreas. These cells are placed back into your body so you can keep making insulin on your own. The stomach and small bowel send signals to the pancreas when these enzymes are needed.

As a result of the signal, the pancreas immediately releases stores of pre-manufactured enzymes into the bowel.

Digestion then takes place in small bowel over next two-three hours. The enzymes are necessary to help us absorb nutrients to give the human body the materials it needs for energy, building muscle and normal working. There are specific enzymes to digest protein, fat, carbohydrates and other nutrients. If we did not have pancreass, all the food we eat would pass straight through. As a result, a person would have steatorrhea.

Steatorrhea is a specific type of loose motion or diarrhoea where particularly undigested food comes straight through. It can have a lot of fat in it, as there is no other part of digestive tract which produces fat breaking enzymes. Consequently, fat remains floating in toilet-pan, and is difficult to flush. There are many causes of steatorrhea, and it needs to diagnosed and managed by a specialist doctor.

Treatment is relatively straightforward, but should be taken under supervision of a specialist pancreas doctor. The endocrine pancreas is very important too. It is called endocrine because it releases chemicals directly into blood stream. There are many functions of the endocrine pancreas, but the most commonly-known and understood is maintaining glucose levels.

If the endocrine pancreas is not functioning well, then you can develop diabetes. There are many types of diabetes, and treatment should take place under guidance of a diabetes specialist. Diabetes is the most common illness which affects the pancreas. Some types of diabetes are as a result of endocrine pancreas not working properly, whilst other types are due to problems in other parts of body and rarely due to medications used to treat other diseases. Diabetes is treated by specialist diabetes doctors.

The pancreas can also get inflamed due to irritation from a variety of agents. This is called pancreatitis. This is also fairly common. There are many types of pancreatitis depending on the causative agent and the duration of the problem.

Gallstones and alcohol are the commonest causes of pancreatitis. This procedure can be used to treat conditions like pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis. In a total pancreatectomy, the entire pancreas is removed. Similar to a Whipple procedure , a portion of the stomach, duodenum, gallbladder, and local lymph nodes are also removed. The spleen may be removed as well.

Because the entire pancreas is removed, the patient becomes an insulin-dependent diabetic for life. For this reason, the procedure is only used when disease has spread so extensively throughout the pancreas that healthy tissue cannot be preserved. Total pancreatectomy is sometimes used prophylactically to prevent onset of pancreatic cancer in patients found to have precancerous conditions like IPMN.



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