Pancreas regeneration after resection: Does it occur in humans?

Although pancreatic regeneration after partial resection or pancreatic inju ry (restitutio ad integrum) has been demonstrated in animal models, whether regeneration occurs in the human pancreas is unknown. Our aim was to deter mine whether the human pancreas regenerates after subtotal resection. We re viewed pre- and postoperative computerized tomograms (CTs) of 21 patients a fter proximal pancreatectomy (50-60% resection) for malignancy with no recu rrent disease during follow-up of pancreatic parenchymal abnormalities. Thr ee fixed anatomic measurements (pancreatic body width, tail width, and leng th) were compared with the same region 10 and 21 months after surgery. Data are expressed as mean +/- SEM. pancreatic measurements before and 10 month s after resection did not differ for body width (2.0 +/- 0.1 cm vs. 1.8 +/- 0.1 cm), tail width (2.2 +/- 0.2 cm vs. 1.8 +/- 0.2 cm) or length (8.2 +/- 0.3 vs, 7.4 +/- 0.4 cm) (p greater than or equal to 0.1 each). At 71 month s after resection, measurements were less for body width and tail width (2. 2 +/- 0.2 cm vs. 1.5 +/- 0.2 cm and 2.2 +/- 0.1 cm vs. 1.5 +/- 0.2 cm, resp ectively; p = 0.01) and unchanged for length (8.1 +/- 0.4 cm vs. 8.1 +/- 0. 4 cm; p = 0.9). We conclude that the human pancreas does not regenerate aft er partial anatomic (50%) resection.