Surgical palliation of unresectable periampullary adenocarcinoma in the 1990s11No competing interests declared. Presented at the American College of Surgeons 84th Annual Clinical Congress, Orlando, FL, October 1998.

Surgical palliation continues to play an important role in the management of periampullary carcinoma. In this high-volume center, 33% of patients undergoing operative management of this disease were unresectable. Surgical palliation can be accomplished with acceptable perioperative mortality (3.1%) and morbidity (22%), with excellent longterm results.