Should obesity be considered a contraindication to mini-invasive pancreaticoduodenectomy?

Obesity is expanding worldwide. In parallel, surgery keeps evolving and improving while mini- invasive surgery is now concerning many different fields if not all. While obese patients may be more challenging to operate on, surgeons should not deny the mini-invasive approach in spite of the potential difficulties linked to increased adiposity, especially in case of complex procedures. We discuss here the challenges of laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD) in such patients, with the advantages it can offer as well as the inconveniences it can struggle on.