[Solid pseudopapilar pancreatic tumors: report of 7 cases and review of the literature].

Introduction: The cystic tumors of the pancreas represent an uncommon entity and the less frequent type among them is the solid pseudopapillary tumor of the pancreas. Its main difference lies in the fact that this type of tumor is more frequent in young patients. Solid pseudopapillary tumors are generally tumors of large size and the majority of them have a benign behavior.

Material And Method: During a period of three years, seven patients with this neoplasia underwent surgery. Six patients (86%) were females and just one was a male, all of them between the ages of 11 and 37. None of these cases showed metastasis and there were no signs of malignancy reported in the pathological anatomy. The average tumor size was 8 cm and the head of the pancreas was the most frequent location (57%). Of the resections performed in these patients, three were middle pancreatectomies, two were distal pancreatectomies one was a duodenopancreatectomy and one was duodenum preserving head resection of the pancreas.

Discussion: The solid pseudopapillary tumors are uncommon tumors which are generally benign or premalignant neoplasias. Nevertheless, 9% of them can behave like carcinomas; therefore, these tumors should not be ignored.