Pancreatic pathology for the surgeon

The pancreas can show a wide range of pathologies that span non- neoplastic (congenital abnormalities, inflammatory and infective) to neoplastic both primary and secondary. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of pancreatic pathology for the non-pathologist reader, particularly highlighting the commoner entities. The article also shows the importance of sampling of certain lesions in total to exclude evidence of invasion in pre-cancerous pancreatic lesions. The reader is thus provided with some insight into the detailed gross and microscopic examination involved in the assessment of many pancreatic lesions.