A complication is can occur after surgery and may make your recovery more difficult. Lung infection or blood clots in the legs are both common complications after any surgery.

Pancreatic operations are very major surgery and hence there are risks attached to them. However as they are done to try to cure your cancer, you may thus feel it is worth taking some risks. It is important to discuss the possible complications with your surgeon and ask all the questions you need to. It is important that your family are given the chance to talk things through with the surgeon as well.

Complications are most likely with the biggest operations - total pancreatectomy and the Whipple's. The complication rate is lowest when it is done by surgeons who are more practised at doing this difficult surgery.

Overall, about 1 out of every 10 patients having the major operations have one or more complications. The commonest complications are

• Internal infection or abscess
• Fluid collection
• Bleeding
• Fistula
• Lung infection
• Heart problems

Read on for more about all these complications.

Infection can develop because there is blood or tissue fluid collecting internally around the operation site. Or because there is internal bleeding. If you develop an internal infection, you will be given antibiotics through your drip. Abscesses or any fluid that has collected internally will need to be drained. This is usually done by putting in a needle or drainage tube. The needle or tube is guided into place by CT Scan or ultrasound.

You may have bleeding straight after your operation because a blood vessel tie is leaking. Or because your blood is not clotting properly. Bleeding in the few days following surgery can happen because there is infection or a fistula forming. How bleeding is treated depends on what is causing it.

'Fistula' means opening. In this case, it means that part of the internal sutured to the digestive system has come apart or broken down. Therefore some of the digestive juices are able to get into your abdomen. In most centres, about 1 in 10 patients having major pancreatic surgery will have a fistula. If you get one, you will have a wound drain put in and have drugs to control the inflammation. The drains will be left in until the fistula dries up. The fistula then heals on its own. Sometimes, the surgeon has to operate again to repair the leak. However our technique of implanting the pancreasa in the stomach results in a 0% fistula rate. We have not had a leak in our last 160 cases.

Lung infection is a common complication of many operations. It happens because you are not moving around enough, or breathing deeply enough after your surgery. What you would normally cough up stays in your lungs and becomes a focus for infection. You can help to prevent this by doing your deep breathing exercises. The physiotherapists and nurses will get you up as soon as possible to help you get moving.

You will have had heart tests before your surgery, but these are major operations and do increase the strain on your heart. Some people do develop heart problems after surgery that they did not have before it.

Our death rate at Mount Elizabeth is zero (0%).