[Pancreatic pseudocysts: endoscopic treatment. Personal experience]

Pseudocyst is a complication of acute and chronic pancreatitis. Today endoscopic drainage is reported as being the treatment of choice for these complications. Endoscopic drainage was performed in 15 patients with a pseudocyst bulging into stomach or duodenal lumen as detected by CT and endoscopic examination. All 15 cases treated from January 1991 to December 2001 (11 men, 4 women; median age: 55.7 years [range: 33-81] were successfully drained. The mean hospital stay was 4.8 days. No mortality or major complications were observed and the compliance was very good. The procedure is safe and we believe that endoscopic drainage should be the procedure of choice for pseudocysts which bulge into the gastrointestinal lumen.