There's more to PANCREAS, than meets the eye!

Blog on Pancreas by Dr. Sadiq Sikora - Best GI Cancer Surgeon in Bangalore

Pancreas is the organ which resides between our stomach and spine. From the moment we are born our pancreas is like a machine on autopilot, silently working, doing its job meal after meal, day after day!

The pancreas is a specialist in two functions:

Exocrine- Which releases enzymes to digest our meals (carbohydrates, fats, proteins and acids)
Endocrine - It releases hormones, insulin and glucagon, that help regulate our blood sugar level.

Pancreas is an important organ of the body, it is one of its kind and lasts a lifetime, extracting nutrients, processing over 100,000 meals in a lifetime without ever breaking down. But whenever it does, it becomes imperative to diagnose and treat the root cause.

Pancreas find it easy to digest a Meal but not when it needs healing! Every step, between making a diagnosis and achieving the desired prognosis, is a milestone in treating a pancreatic condition. A process that goes beyond surgery and intervention. Where surgery itself is a lot more than – making the cut and repairing the damage done by a disease. Meticulous planning and preparations towards patient counseling, stabilising general health, improving nutritional status, preparing the patient for surgery and immaculate post-op care is what goes into, not just treating but healing a patient in its truest sense. All this backed with an interdisciplinary approach is what makes it possible to handle even the most complex cases.

When would you need to see a doctor?

Loss of appetite and indigestion

Severe gnawing pain that wraps the upper part of the abdomen
Foul-smelling fatty stool
Chronic conditions – may manifest as malnutrition and sudden weight loss
Recent onset diabetes in elderly patients
Cancers specifically manifest as painless jaundice with no initial symptoms though, but later exhibiting yellowish discoloration of eyes and skin and itching all over the body.

Common Pancreatic Conditions

Some of the commonly seen pancreatic conditions are:

Diabetes Type 1 & Type 2
Acute Pancreatitis
Chronic Pancreatitis
Hereditary pancreatitis
Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic tumors of the pancreas
Neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas
Pancreatic Cancers

How peculiar can a pancreatic condition get?

Cases can be as minor as an episode of mild acute pancreatitis and as severe as an insidiously developing tumor of the pancreas. There can be a routine case of detecting diabetes from the symptoms or it can be a case where the symptoms of diabetes are silently camouflaging a life-threatening tumor.

What would decide the fate of such a pancreatic condition:

Factor-1- The right diagnosis made by the right doctor at the right time followed by proper planning and execution of the appropriate line of treatment.
Factor-2- multidisciplinary approach wherein specialists from different departments come together as a team to validate the Factor-1.

The prognosis of a pancreatic condition depends a lot on the age of the patient, stage of diagnosis, underlying diabetic condition, general health , along with the medical and surgical approach with which it is being managed. Patients beyond 50 years, of age, exhibiting non-specific symptoms, and recent onset diabetes need to be critically evaluated, as they might harbor small tumors of the pancreas. At Sakra Institute of Digestive & HPB sciences, a team of specialists from the departments of Surgical & Medical Gastroenterology, Medical Oncology and Diagnostic & Interventional Radiology work together in order to provide a more comprehensive treatment to the patients. It is a blessing to have all these specialties under one roof, especially when dealing some of the most complex cases.

Pancreas Care Program

Doctors at Sakra understand this portentous Power of Pancreas, and the ability of this silent organ to blatantly affect the quality of life of a patient- Diabetic or not. This is the reason why our doctor have very carefully designed the Pancreas Care Program, to deal with this organ that has only come to light when used synonymously with Diabetes up till now. But now is the time when we start looking at this organ beyond its ability to attack our body with the weapon of Insulin alone. Considering that, keeping a holistic approach towards Pancreas and its disorders, the Pancreas Care Program at Sakra operates with the following objective:

To develop a center with a comprehensive approach to treatment by a multidisciplinary team of specialists who will assess the risk, current disease status, and appropriate therapeutic interventions.
To provide state-of-the-art treatment and research for pancreatic diseases.
To offer all modalities of treatment such as advanced endoscopic and interventional treatments, surgical treatment depending upon the disease status.
To develop a supportive counselling, awareness and educational program for the patient and the family members of the patients with pancreatic disease.
To maximize outcomes for patients with pancreatic disease.

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