Heterotopic pancreas in children: review of the literature and report of 12 cases

Heterotopic pancreas (HP) is rarely recognized during surgery. Many reports concerning this anomaly are simple case reports. We herein review our experiences with HP. We retrospectively investigated cases of HP from April 1975 to September 2006. We discussed the frequencies in the laparotomized patients, and patient’s age, gender, operative indication, location of HP, post-operative diagnosis and pathology. A total of 12 patients with HP, 3 boys and 9 girls, aged 1 day to 10 years of age were investigated. Ten patients had one pattern of HP and the remaining two had more than one. The locations of the HP were as follows: Meckel’s diverticulum, 4; stomach, 3; duodenum, 3; jejunum, 3; and ileum, 2. Only in one patient HP had caused an intussusception. The remaining 11 cases were identified incidentally during the operation. In 11 of 12 patients, HP was removed without post-operative complications. Classification of pathologies according to Heinrich is as follows: type I, 4; type II, 4; type III, 2 and unknown, 2. Patients with HP are usually asymptomatic. However, HP caused an intussusception in our series. Incidental HPs should be removed whenever identified during laparotomy.