To what extent does the artificial pancreas facilitate the surgery of preoperatively not localized insulinomas?

Summary

The present study has been performed in order to evaluate the usefulness of the artificial pancreas in the surgical management of previously not localized insulinomas. In the 4 patients studied, blood glucose was maintained both overnight and during surgery up to a preselected individualized level in order to avoid hypoglycemia. During surgery, only one patient required dextrose infusion. The continuous intrasurgical monitoring of blood glucose in the 4 cases examined showed that: (1) anesthesia induction, surgical incision and viscera mobilization were accompanied by a rise in blood glucose (10–30 mg/dl), reaching the highest levels 30–40 min after the start of the operation; (2) adenoma manipulation was followed by a drop in blood glucose (10–40 mg/dl), reaching the lowest level after 30–40 min; (3) adenoma resection was followed by a rise in blood glucose (25–40 mg/dl), particularly evident after 30–40 min. It is concluded that the artificial pancreas is certainly useful during surgery of insulin-producing tumors, allowing continuous monitoring of glycemia and avoiding dangerous blood glucose excursions: however, when the insulinoma is not identified during surgery, the periods elapsing between the surgical phases and the blood glucose changes observed can be too prolonged to ensure successful conservative serial pancreatectomy in all cases.