Coma after surgery for pancreatic cancer

Dear Ask The Doctor: A friend of mine has cancer and recently went in to have her pancreas removed. she didn't wake up after the surgery is how they put it though I use the word coma. is going into a coma normal for this type of surgery? if it's not normal what could the close friends and family think about doing to resolve this issue?

Dear Laura: Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis regardless of the stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis. The disease is usually diagnosed late as it usually does not cause any symptoms in the early stages amd the symptoms are non-specific even in advanced disease.

It is not common for individuals to "not wake up" after surgery. However, every individual is different. There are many factors that must be considered to explain this phenomenon in your friend. There are many metabolic changes that take place in the body when one has cancer. Significant variations in nutrients such as sodium, potassium, calcium etc can result in a coma. Surgery can exacerbate these abnormalities. Your friend could have also suffered a stroke, again a possible complication merely from her diagnosis of cancer. It is also possible that her doctors have deliberately kept her in a coma to allow her body to heal after the extensive surgery that is usually performed for pancreatic cancer. If her present condition is the result of a correctable cause (such as a metabolic abnormality) then her doctors will take the necessary steps to correct this and monitor her process. Otherwise, there is not much that can be done medically.