Expert Care

Our surgeons have vast experience in delivering surgical care for patients with diseases of the liver, pancreas and gallbladder. The majority of our surgical patients require surgery for treatment of cancer. We have performed over 5,000 complex liver, pancreas and bile duct surgical procedures since the inception of our program.

All of our complex operations are performed by a highly specialized team of surgeons, with assistance from dedicated operating room nurses and technicians. Currently, many of our complex liver, pancreas and bile duct operations are approached using minimally invasive techniques, namely robotic surgery.

These are some of the non-transplant operations that our surgeons perform using minimally invasive or open techniques:

  • Liver resection for primary liver or bile duct tumor, or metastasis
  • Pancreatic resection for primary pancreatic tumors (Whipple, distal pancreatectomy, enucleation)
  • Bile duct resection for bile duct tumor, choledochal cyst
  • Liver resection after portal vein embolization
  • Portal vein or superior mesenteric vein resection and reconstruction during pancreatic resection for cancer
  • Portal vein or hepatic artery resection and reconstruction during liver resection for bile duct cancer
  • Inferior vena cava resection
  • Bile duct repair and reconstruction after bile duct injury
  • Surgical shunts (portacaval, distal splenorenal, proximal splenorenal shunts)
  • Liver cyst fenestration
  • Removal of gallbladder
  • Peritoneal dialysis catheter insertion
  • Ex-vivo liver resection
  • Hernia repair

Patients who are scheduled for surgery are counseled using our Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol. Our protocol involves preoperative preparation, judicious fluid management intraoperatively and multimodality pain and nausea management post-operatively. Our ERAS goals are to improve patients’ stress response to major surgery, enable their bodies to adapt to changes associated with perioperative care and help patients return to baseline function faster.

Comprehensive Services

Patients from throughout New England and other parts of the country come to Lahey because of our comprehensive services. We provide surgery, image-guided therapy, transplants and drug therapy for liver, pancreatic and bile duct diseases all in one place.

We work jointly with our multidisciplinary partners in oncology, radiation oncology, gastroenterology, hepatology, advance endoscopy, interventional radiology, dietary and nutrition to provide an individualized comprehensive care plan for the treatment of liver, pancreas or bile duct cancer.