Hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery

The North East’s Hepato-Pancreatico-Biliary (HPB) Centre provides highly individual, specialist services for patients with benign (non-cancerous) and malignant (cancerous) diseases of the liver, biliary system and pancreas.

We provide a service for patients from as far afield as Northumbria, Cumbria, Teesside and North Yorkshire but see many patients from all across the UK and some travel to be seen here from overseas.

Patient centred care

We are one of the busiest units in the UK led by a team of experts from many specialties including experienced surgeons, gastroenterologists, radiologists, pathologists, anaesthetists, oncologists, intensive care physicians, nurse specialists and dietitians. This is what is known as a multidisciplinary approach and every member of the team is dedicated to providing the highest quality care.

All our patients are discussed in our weekly team meeting giving the opportunity for review of your care and treatment by every member of our team. This ensures that the treatment that we deliver to you is the best we can offer and can also help speed up the organisation of any further investigations you might need.

We also have a team of HPB Clinical Nurse Specialists who provide advice and support on all aspects of your care, from the point of diagnosis throughout your treatment and follow-up care.

Advancing clinical care to benefit our patients

We combine medical expertise with an innovative approach to new technologies.

In Newcastle we have developed an innovative database that allows team members and doctors in outlying hospitals to track patients diagnosed with cancer through their “treatment journey”. Despite an increase in the number of referrals, team working has helped to reduce our waiting times and improve our surgical outcomes.

When the doctor who is currently treating you decides to ask for an opinion from the specialist team at the Freeman Hospital, they will contact the ‘Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Team’. Alternatively you can contact the team yourself.

We will then either, arrange to see you straight away in the clinic or arrange for you to have some further investigations first. Sometimes you may be transferred from another hospital which may not have the necessary expertise (also known as a tertiary referral).

Who do we treat?

At the Freeman Hospital we treat patients with the following conditions:

Liver

We have expertise in managing patients with all liver conditions and work closely with our hepatology colleagues who specialise in the medical treatment of conditions of the liver. We also have strong links with liver transplant and some of our team are also liver transplant surgeons. Each year we do over 80 liver resections. The following liver conditions are commonly treated by us:

Liver tumours – primary and secondary (metastases)
Liver cysts including polycystic disease
Benign liver lumps such as haemangiomas
Parasitic infections such as hydatid
Liver abscess
Portal hypertension
Injuries to the liver

Biliary system

Although gallstones tend to be a straightforward condition to treat, this is not always the case and they may be complex. In addition, the biliary system may be the site of more serious disease. We have specific expertise in treating complex biliary disease as well as the more straightforward problems including:

Gallstones and complications
Benign biliary strictures
Tumours of the gall bladder and bile ducts
Biliary infection
Injuries to the bile duct

Pancreas and Duodenum

We are a designated UK centre for the treatment of pancreatic disease and last year we did over 100 surgical resections of the pancreas. Our mortality rate for the Whipple’s operation (pancreaticoduodenectomy) over the last 3 years has been 3%. We have specific expertise in both the more common and rarer diseases of the pancreas: