Usefulness of transhepatic portal catheterization in the treatment of insulinomas

Twenty-four per cent of beta-cell tumours require more than one operation to control the hypoglycaemic syndrome. Almost all of them are small insulinomas undetectable by palpation of the pancreas. Arteriography is too insensitive to detect non-palpable tumours. Transhepatic catheterization of the splenic and portal veins (TPC) can detect the position at which there is an abrupt increase in insulin level indicating the site of the tumour. Routine use of TPC allowed us to locate all 9 insulinomas in which this technique was employed, whereas of 15 patients not studied by TPC only 12 tumours were located at first operation, 2 of which were found by blind resection of the tail of the pancreas. We believe that routine application of TPC to all cases of suspected insulinoma would reduce the incidence of surgical failures, unsuccessful blind resections and lengthy trials of medical therapy before laparotomy.