Medical Dictionary

Whipple procedure

noun

Medical Definition of WHIPPLE PROCEDURE

:  pancreaticoduodenectomy; especially :  one in which there is complete excision of the pancreas and partial excision of the duodenum

Biographical Note for WHIPPLE PROCEDURE

Whipple, Allen Oldfather (1881–1963), American surgeon. Whipple's chief medical positions were with the surgical faculty of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and the surgical staff of New York City's Presbyterian Hospital. After his retirement from Columbia University, he reformed the medical training programs at Memorial Hospital in New York City and American University in Beirut, Lebanon. A leader in abdominal, spleen, and gallbladder surgery, he was credited with the creation of the spleen clinic in the surgery department at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which was responsible for many important advances, including prosthetic materials for aortic grafting and the measurement and treatment of portal hypertension. Whipple is best known for his triad of criteria for hyperinsulinism with tumors of the islets of Langerhans and for his operation for carcinoma of the pancreas, the latter having been introduced in 1938.

Variants of WHIPPLE PROCEDURE

Whipple procedure or Whipple's procedure

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