Is It Correct Whether Pancreato-Splenectomy Is Essential for Dissection and Removal of Lymph Nodes Along the Splenic Artery?

Eighty two patients with pathological metastasis to the lymph nodes along the splenic artery (L11) were divided into two groups (pancreato-splenectomy(PS) (+): 19 cases, PS(-):63 cases). Their backgrounds were.not different. Five year survival rate of PS(+) group was 10.5%, and that of PS(-) group was 12.8%. Residual lymph nodes were microscopically detected in the previously dissected pancreas specimen in three out of eight cases studied. Those lymph nodes were few in number, small in size and all of them were cancer negative. From these results, we concluded that dissection of L11 without PS might be a clinically satisfactory procedure against advanced gastric carcinoma.